Soon, you'll be watching video on Facebook from your TV.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is developing a "video-centric app" for set-top boxes, including the Apple TV, so it can put video content from the social network on screens in the living room. It would also help Facebook get into video advertising. Facebook's been embracing video a lot over the past couple years, with a high-quality upgrade to its video platform and the introduction of live broadcasting.
Facebook's upcoming set-top box video app is actually one of many projects it is working on as part of its ongoing "video-first" efforts. Facebook, which sits only behind Google as the largest digital advertiser, wants to better compete against TV ads. It's currently testing a new video ad product and has even talked with media companies about licensing TV programming so it can make premium content available on television sets.
The Wall Street Journal said the US TV ad market is a $70 billion business, and that video ads command more of a premium than the text/image ads currently found in Facebook's news feed, which is also quickly running out of room for ads. Facebook likely wants to tap into advertisers' marketing budgets for TV ads and sees its availability on living room screens as being essential to achieving that goal.
Facebook's set-top box app, which is under development, won't contain “non-video content". It'll be a home for finding original, premium content that Facebook currently is trying to get from major studios. And Facebook will eventually sell video ads against that content.