In a move to further its dominance across platforms, Facebook Inc. (FB) has announced a new app for set-top boxes that will allow users to stream videos on their televisions. This includes saved videos, Facebook's recommended videos, videos shared by pages or friends, and top live videos from around the world. The app will roll out soon to stores for Amazon's (AMZN) Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Apple TV (AAPL), with more platforms to be announced soon.
"A lot of people when they’re watching video in news feed during the day will save it for later, because they don’t have time to watch," said VP of Partnerships Dan Rose at Recode's Code Media conference. "Now it's easy to watch on your TV if you want to do that. We want people to be able to consume content wherever they are – whether it’s on their phone, whether it’s on their computer — and TV is just another screen for that." In October, the company added a feature to its smartphone app that let users hit a button to stream videos on Apple TV and Google's (GOOG) Chromecast. (See also: Apple Offers First Look at Its TV Shows)
The company also announced other video features in the blog post. Users can now stream videos in a corner of the screen as they continue scrolling through their newsfeeds. Videos will also autoplay with sound as a user scrolls down and vertical videos will expand to fill the screen.
The Wall Street Journal had reported last month that Facebook was developing a 'video-centric' app for TV and that it was negotiating licensing deals for TV-quality programming. The report also said that the new content may include longer videos and even commissioned scripted shows alongside sports and entertainment videos. On a Q4 earnings call, Zuckerberg did indeed confirm that Facebook is looking toward developing episodic content, amongst other things. (See also: Is Facebook a Future Competitor to Netflix?)
"I see video as a mega trend on the same order as mobile," Zuckerberg said to investors in a conference call this month. "That's why we're going to keep putting video first across our family of apps and making it easier for people to capture and share video in new ways." Facebook has been actively pushing users to try out its range of video offerings, including Facebook Live and Instagram Stories which it launched successfully last year.
This latest move pits Facebook directly against rivals like Google's YouTube and Hulu, both competitors to traditional broadcast television. Facebook will be able to compete with television for ad dollars if it can get its user base to use the TV app. It's not clear yet if Facebook plans to monetize users accessing the content it develops, so we can keep an eye out for news on that.
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