Earlier this month, we told you about Facebook giving the green light to a new reality documentary series on Ball family. It was part of a group of series that were given the go-ahead to start. Now we know that Facebook’s first episodes will be launching in mid-August.
Facebook had hoped to premiere its first original series last month, but there were snags and delays. It’s funding various original shows that can be streamed outside of a user’s newsfeed. In fact, Facebook expects to launch a new video section will house the series and give it even more advertising revenue.
The series are expected to be short-form video rather than modeled after a half-hour or hour-long episodes that have been aired on television. Facebook isn’t going to compete with Netflix or Amazon but expects to be a higher-end version of YouTube.
With a memberships of more than two billion around the world, Facebook will already have a built-in audience for these shows. The whole thing is that whether there will be a higher viewership or how Facebook will measure them as a successes or failures.
Former TV and media executives have been brought on board to oversee Facebook’s original series video project. And while this first set of shows will be a guinea pig for the service, it doesn’t appear to be on a track to make Facebook a video destination like Amazon Prime or Netflix.
