Facebook Lands Lonzo Ball and Basketball Family for Reality Show
August 30 2017 - 12:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Imani Moise
Facebook Inc. is betting a family of media-savvy basketball
personalities can draw a dedicated audience to its revamped
original programming effort.
LaVar Ball and his family -- including his son, Los Angeles
Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball -- will star in a new reality series
called "Ball in the Family," which will air on the social media
site's recently redesigned Watch video tab.
Mr. Ball's spirited and even theatrical promotion of Lonzo, who
was selected second in the NBA draft this summer, has been the
subject of much media attention. Mr. Ball made headlines after
claiming that Lonzo, who has yet to play in an NBA game, is a
better player than two-time MVP Steph Curry and that, in his prime,
he himself could have taken on basketball legend Michael Jordan in
a one-on-one contest.
Trailers for the show indicate it will offer an inside look at
the family, including LaVar's efforts to groom his three sons into
basketball legends, the building of the Big Baller Brand business
and his wife's rehabilitation after a stroke.
The first two episodes will be available Thursday, and new
episodes will be released on Sundays beginning Sept. 10.
"We wanted to give our fans an unfiltered look into our lives
and show them a side of us that isn't typically seen," LaVar Ball
said in a statement. "We have a big community of fans on Facebook,
so we're excited our series is going to be on Watch."
The video series is being produced by Bunim/Murray Productions,
the company behind "Keeping up with the Kardashians," "The Real
World," and "The Simple Life."
The social media site is hoping the show will attract a
significant weekly audience for appointment viewing similar to
traditional TV programming and also compete with the likes of
Google's YouTube.
"Airing this show on Facebook has enabled us to push the
conventions of reality in a way we think will really drive
community engagement," said Julie Pizzi, co-president of
entertainment and development at Bunim/Murray Productions.
Facebook is trying to position itself to draw more video
advertising dollars to help drive revenue growth. To jump-start the
original video effort, Facebook is trying to help offset the risk
for creators either by paying to offset their production costs or
offering to license or buy their content outright, people familiar
with the matter have said.
Facebook also is offering some publishers a share of revenue
generated from video ads, and in some cases, guaranteeing a certain
amount of ad revenue. Facebook has said it hopes to move to an
advertising revenue share model exclusively down the road.
Facebook hasn't disclosed how much it's spending on original
content.
Earlier this month, Facebook gave marketers the ability to run
video ads specifically as "in-stream" placements, meaning they will
appear as ad breaks in the middle of publishers' videos.
Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 30, 2017 12:08 ET (16:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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