We know it was coming. Facebook has started testing ad breaks in videos using a small set of partners. Facebook will keep a 45 percent share and the content creators will get 55 percent of the ad revenue. On-demand video publishers can choose where they want to insert the ad and they will have to be at least 20 seconds after the video has started.

Video has long become a popular medium and YouTube has been the home to video bloggers and in turn the medium of choice for brands to work with influencers. While some of these content creators have been attracted to Facebook for the visibility it has been offering for a while, the monetisation option will get them to look at Facebook more seriously and this could land a strong punch at YouTube.

The introduction of these ads could also get the content creators to tailor their content to get viewers to bear through the ads and not drop out. As the ads are much different than the pre-roll ads standard across the industry, they will require some creative thinking but could yield better results for brands advertising on this newfound channel.

In 2016, Facebook started testing mid-roll ads on live videos and is now expanding the program. Any U.S. publisher with more than 2,000 followers and having reached over 300 concurrent viewers in recent videos will be able to insert ads into the livestreams and can generate same ad revenue as on-demand videos. The live video option will be available only after constant stream of at least four minutes and the ad will last for 20 seconds.

These live ad breaks will bring about two changes which are a bit interdependent. Publishers, influencers or video bloggers will focus on keeping the content engaging for longer to be able to actually monetise the stream and as there can be 20 second breaks, it will become easier for the broadcasters to be on camera for longer. This will also further hit Periscope, the live broadcasting app which hasn’t seen many good days since its initial popularity.

This of course could also go quite the opposite way than what we have mentioned above for on-demand videos. As creators would want to make the most of ads, there is a risk that short crisp clippings will turn into needlessly extended videos to put the meat after first 20 seconds after they have made their ad money beating the 5 seconds rule. All the travel bloggers out there, please don’t do this.

How it evolves is yet to be seen but it is pretty clear that your Facebook news feed is about to change, yet again.

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Handling brand accounts or covering live events, we all have been there at some point. Need a high quality live stream but setting up the API, encoder and everything else is too much effort. Even worse is explaining the process to someone who is supposed to broadcast live from another location (worst is setting up YouTube live though). Broadcasting from mobile is an alternative however, not many mobile devices are able to match the quality of proper video equipment and mobile networks often don’t do a very good job of broadcasting even high quality stream.

To deal with this and get more people to use Facebook Live, the social platform is enabling Facebook Pages to go live from web browser. Being able to use a simple stable webcam for live broadcasts will be useful for influencers and in some other scenarios where the mobility isn’t needed. If you are a travel blogger who broadcast vlogs at times, this is something you will like. Another advantage would be the option to add high quality cameras that can be connected as webcam without having to deal with the complicated API process.

With this addition, they have also added the option to add Live Contributors for Pages. Previously, the broadcaster needed to be an admin of the page. Now however, this new role will allow admins to designate specific individuals to go live without giving them full page control. This was certainly a much needed feature and brands who often collaborate with multiple content creators will appreciate it.

Facebook has a strong focus on videos and it is further highlighted by the fact that it has rolled out video insights for live videos. Profiles with 5,000 or more followers will have access to what Facebook termed ‘lightweight insights’. These metrics will include total minutes viewed, total number of views and total engagement. Along with this, users will also be able to see aggregated insights for all videos. Broadcasters can now also pin comments during live videos to highlight them over other comments during the broadcast.

More information about these updates can be found on Facebook blog here.

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Periscope, the live streaming app which was acquired by Twitter, gave mobile live broadcasting the initial push. Meerkat also offered similar feature but Periscope was quick to surge ahead and attract a large number of users and brands. All of a sudden everyone was becoming a news reporter, travel blogger, broadcaster and what not. However the initial attention did wear off soon and the number of active users started going south.

Facebook borrowed the live video feature from Periscope and now Periscope is trying to hit back with some new features. The first feature that they have added is ‘sketch’. As teenagers would tell you, this feature is inspired by the similar feature in Snapchat. You can simply tap the screen, select ‘sketch’ and start doodling on the screen. So at this point, it appears that the social platforms are picking pages from the success story of other social platforms.

https://twitter.com/periscopeco/status/725452090244521984

https://twitter.com/periscopeco/status/725454938923491329

Previously Periscope changed the layout of the app to make it easier for users to discover streams. Now they have also introduced viewer graphs for broadcasters (iOS) so that they can see how many people watched the stream and how many watched the replays. This is something both users and brands would be interested in.

In other news, China now has an answer to Periscope and the app is called Yizhibo. Periscope is banned in mainland China and it will be interesting to see how this one fits in the tightly controlled social ecosystem.

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