Facebook Live: in search of a new order
A year since going public and Facebook Live still feels more BETA than broadcast, but there have been three subtle interventions over the last few months that are moving it to a new order, writes Alex Wassersier
In the history of this twenty-first century, one wouldn’t instantly identify a combination of Ricky Gervais, a bath tub, a smartphone and seventy-three seconds of video as foreshadowing an imminent and potentially significant technological dislocation.
And yet, as we look back in years to come, we just might.
Gervais, in the third of four vignettes he would publish online that particular August day in 2015, was experimenting with a new feature Facebook had offered via its Mentions service only the day before – an app then, as now, open only to “verified” public figures or brands allowing them to publish text, images and video to followers.
Since its launch a year earlier, such personalities could only offer non-live clips, ranging in style and size, to their expectant faithful.
Now, with an immediacy the social network had never been able to provide before, they could stream live and uninterrupted to users.
As Gervais himself commented, somewhat bewildered, “that first video…got a million-and-a-half views. It’s mental.”
Facebook Live, as we all now know it, has come a long way in its near-eighteen months of life on our News Feeds. What began as a limited release to a handful of celebrities under the guise of that very Mentions app has grown to become, and represent, something much broader and more democratic.
Offered on a trial basis amongst select US users before being made available to all last April, the service has offered publishers and consumers a seemingly unbridled platform for choice and creativity.
Its live broadcasts, which can run for up to four hours at a time, have for good or ill rarely left the headlines.
And perhaps of most pertinence is Facebook Live’s recent tilt towards agreements with professional content publishers – the latest being a deal with Univision to stream 46 Mexican League football matches live, together with English language commentary. A tie-up with Major League Baseball is also believed to be in the offing.
As anyone in the industry will attest, holding the reins to the most attractive and exciting content is one thing. Enticing viewers to watch, not only once but frequently, is quite another.
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Within the increasingly professionalised Facebook Live that is emerging, there are (and will continue to be) three matters of mutual ongoing interest to Facebook (as an aggregator), content publishers (as curators and creators) and users (as consumers).
The first is the ease with which appealing and relevant live content can be found – either serendipitously, or by means of an active search on a user’s part.
The second, obvious though significant, is the simplicity (and speed) of navigation through to playback.
The final and perhaps most fundamental challenge is how to move an already engaged and enthusiastic audience from one content publisher to another when a live stream ends – keeping them within a Facebook Live-, or at the very least Facebook-, controlled environment.
The sophistication with which Facebook can pull off these three things, individually and in combination, will go a long way to determining not only Live’s short- and medium-term success but also its popularity and credibility as a mainstream entertainment and distribution platform.
When Marc Zuckerberg launched Facebook Live to the general public last April, he described it as “like having a TV camera in your pocket” and having “the power to broadcast to anyone in the world”.
Yet it currently behaves in a way that is far removed from the broadcast-like environment it seeks to emulate.
The mechanics of today’s service make discovering and consuming live video extremely challenging from the consumer’s perspective; choice is broad and broadening, yet navigation is as chaotic as it is creative.
Facebook must bring to Live organisation, aggregation and an almost “editorial” discipline (meant in the artistic, not political, sense). And, slowly but surely, it appears they are.
Three subtle interventions from the last few months, each in their own way significant, are moving Facebook Live towards a new order:
– The first tool is a worldwide “heat” map, available for users to view when the service is accessed through a web browser.
At any one time, this displays all of the global locations from which a Facebook Live broadcasts are originating – the closest Facebook Live has to a homepage. A small blue dot denotes a live broadcast, and its relative size is representative of its popularity.
Though the unsuspecting user may have little inclination at first glance as to what may be on offer, selecting one such stream plays the broadcast live, together with displaying real-time audience information and interaction.
– The second initiative is Facebook’s more extensive use of its series of community brands, into which live streams are grouped (and to which users can subscribe to discover new ones).
Examples include Music on Facebook (6.2m followers worldwide at the time of writing) and Sports on Facebook (15.6m global) followers.
Though it would be an exaggeration to describe these brands as “channels” (the majority of the video available is on-demand, and not particularly plentiful), we can at least witness content from various publishers beginning to coalesce around a common theme (i.e. sports or music). Expect this to continue.
– Finally, the feature that most genuinely allows publishers to offer users an “appointment to view” is the ability to schedule Facebook Live broadcasts up to a week in advance.
Beginning with “verified” (i.e. celebrity) pages last October, rolling out to all other pages (but not profiles) in the following months, this feature notifies followers of a particular publisher (e.g. Nike) that a live broadcast is due to take place on a particular time and date. It also reminds them of the upcoming broadcast in the days leading up to it.
In turn, these tools are nudging users towards a time, a place and personality in much the same way – dare I say it – television historically has.
This is not, as some commentators would argue, Facebook Live seeking to usurp television.
It is in fact Facebook paying television its greatest compliment. It’s scheduling, just not as we’ve come to know it historically.
Recent adjustments to the algorithm underpinning the News Feed had already enhanced the prominence and discoverability of live video.
These three features outlined above are a useful start in seeking to bring the organisation, aggregation and “editorial” discipline I earlier advocated. Yet more needs to be done. Facebook Live still feels more “BETA” than broadcast.
In all of this, perspective must be maintained. Yes, Facebook possesses enviable, perhaps impregnable, scale: 1.86 billion monthly active users, and an even more impressive 1.23 billion daily active users, in the month of December.
Yet the latest data indicates that Facebook-delivered video accounts for only 1.7% of the average UK adult’s video consumption each day, rising to 2.5% for 16-24s. In each case, only a fraction of this will be live.
This total, together with its live component, will grow in the coming years. But while I speak above of “followers” and “subscribers” to Facebook brands or personalities, we all know that a “follower” is not, and can’t always reliably be, an engaged viewer.
Facebook’s ultimate challenge spans far beyond getting users to merely “like” or “follow” a particular publisher or personality.
What can appear on the face of it to be a question of merely how Facebook Live “looks” to one user from the next, or from one device to the next, is in fact driving at something much more subtle.
As Facebook seeks further partnerships with professional publishers, ease in discovery and simplicity in presentation of their content remains key.
For brands and advertisers, particularly those with a keen interest in the soon-to-be-expanded trial of mid-roll ads in Facebook Live, all of this conditions how and by whom your ad (and perhaps your next ad) is seen.
And for the casual Facebook Live broadcaster, this may just affect the next time you choose to go live from the bath.