By now everything that can be said about the rise of THE Social Network that is Facebook has been stated and repeated over and over again, from its humble beginnings in the mid-2000’s to its meteoric ascent to the probable pinnacle of social media and networking. It was a hit when it debuted on browsers on desktop and laptop computers, and it was more of a hit when it got apps on mobile phones and other similar devices. Even as FB’s Oculus VR department is building up steam under the leadership of new chief Hugo Barra, another new frontier is set to be entered, and perhaps decisively dominated by Mark Zuckerberg’s juggernaut.
Watch out, because Facebook is gearing up to rule television screens – that is, TV micro-console screens – very soon.
Coming soon on television platforms
This Tuesday, February 14 – Valentine’s, evening – Facebook gave out a press release detailing their plans to release micro-console apps to enable Facebook videos to be viewed on three prominent platforms: Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TV. Now video footage hosted on Facebook’s network can be viewed on big screens right in the living room, and other micro-consoles will be getting their own app versions soon. Zuckerberg sees the new frontier of television FB and accordingly has placed new emphasis on developing the network’s live video capabilities especially in their growing family of connected apps, thus enabling the dedicated user base to more easily capture and share video footage on Facebook.
In this way they are finding new ways to more actively compete with video rival Snapchat, even embracing the latter’s “vertical video” format.
Another reason for Facebook’s move into TV micro-consoles is the potential of being able to tap into television-level advertising budgets, especially with regards to the social media website having hit the limit on the number of online ads it can show users at any given time.
With that kind of budgeting possibly made available if the FB push to TV is successful, Zuckerberg envisions the onset of actual Facebook-original online contents such as full programming.
Uphill battle
As it stands, Facebook is going to be facing an intensely competitive market where it’s going. Aside from Snapchat, there’s also YouTube, currently under the umbrella of Google – which FB has recently partnered with to police “fake news” content during the French national elections to worry about.
Even traditional TV networks will be in the ring of this new free-for-all that Zuckerberg is steering the company into. But Facebook seems just about ready for what the television corner can throw at it.
