Facebook Stops Paying Publishers to Broadcast Live Videos

You may see the number of professional live-streams decline on your News Feed in the coming year. Facebook spent $50 million last year coaxing 140 celebrities and publishers to post live video on its platform and popularize Facebook Live, but its enthusiasm for the format appears to have dimmed.

Sources have told Recode that the social media giant is “de-emphasizing live video” and will likely not renew the paid live-streaming deals it has in place with popular publishers. Instead, Facebook will reportedly shift its focus to high-quality, pre-recorded episodes of video content of the variety you find on YouTube or Netflix. Recode reports that Facebook executive Ricky Van Veen is in discussions with creators to license TV-style content that may drive higher ad revenues and buys.

It’s not clear whether Facebook will pay publishers, athletes, and media celebrities to create long-form content. Some of the largest, multi-million dollar Facebook Live contracts were awarded to the likes of marquee publishers such as Buzzfeed, New York Times, and CNN. According to Engadget, however, many publishers were unsatisfied with the compensation they were receiving from Facebook to stage and post real-time broadcasts, meaning there was a chance a good number of them would not have opted to renew their Facebook Live contracts in 2017 regardless.

Facebook’s decision to stop paying to encourage live-streaming on its platform may suggest that its plan worked. Indeed, it may be that the format is becoming popular enough to sustain itself financially, especially as advertisers begin to invest heavily in live video, promoting sponsored broadcasts and branded content.