YouTube competitor Facebook Watch launches globally

One year to the month since it officially launched in the US, Facebook is bringing its video-streaming service Watch to its users around the world. The service wants to make it easier for its users to find new videos to watch and keep them away from competition like Google’s YouTube. Facebook is bringing the attention to features like being able to easily discover and watch new videos that range from sports to news to entertainment. Watch will also be curated to match your interests. If you want to check out the new stuff, Watchlist section will show you recently-uploaded videos from creators you’ve chosen to follow. And like Facebook’s read later function for links, you can save videos for later viewing, too.

Facebook is putting its stakes in exclusive content, too. There are programs like Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk and Bear Grylls’ Face the Wild on the service. Next month, Elizabeth Olsen’s 10-episode drama Sorry For Your Loss is coming exclusively to Facebook Watch.

Facebook boasts that what separates Watch from the likes of YouTube is the community or audience interaction with the content. The social network says later on you’ll be able to join Watch Parties, Premieres, and other types of content that’s made for participation, including games. You can access Watch in the More section of your mobile app. It should be showing up soon if it hasn’t yet. Watch is also available on Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs, Oculus TV, and Xbox One.

On top of this, Facebook is expanding its Ad Breaks program for video content creators to help them monetize their videos on its service. Facebook is also offering them new tools, insights, and best practices to help them get the most of their videos. There are different criteria creators need to meet to qualify for Ad Breaks, including having created three-minute videos with more than 30,000 one-minute views in over the past couple of months, over 10,000 Facebook followers, meet monetization eligibility standards, and be in a country where Ad Breaks is available. At the moment, it isn’t available in Canada but it is available in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. And it’ll be coming to France, Germany, Norway, Mexico, and Thailand next month. If you qualify for it, revenue split is 55 percent for creators and 45 percent for Facebook.

Source: BBC + BGR