We recently extended Rights Manager to help monitor and protect video on Instagram, in addition to Facebook. While we’ve always provided tools for rights owners to report potential IP violations on Instagram, now Rights Manager offers another way to help protect your videos.

This update is something that rights owners have asked for, and builds on the the improvements we’ve made since introducing Rights Manager nearly two years ago. Last year, we announced improvements that enable greater automation and more flexible controls, and added third-party integrations to give rights owners more ways to access Rights Manager capabilities.

How to protect your video on Instagram:

• If you are a Rights Manager user, you can access this functionality today by logging into your Facebook Page to enable coverage on Instagram — either through a prompt when you open Rights Manager, or by going to Rights Manager in your Page Settings and enabling it.
• Once you’ve enabled Rights Manager for Instagram, the reference files you upload will protect that content on Instagram and Facebook.
• Rights Manager users can choose to automatically “Block” or “Monitor” the matched video, or send the match to the “Manual Review” tab to be reviewed and acted on at a later time.
• If you’ve already uploaded reference files and applied match rules for protecting video on Facebook, the same rules will automatically apply to Instagram, if the action is also available for Instagram.

We welcome your feedback as we continue to improve our content protection tools. If you’re a rights owner, you can apply for Rights Manager here.

To learn more about Rights Manager for Instagram, please visit here.

New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection and celebration with friends and family. More than 10 million people around the world went live on Facebook to share their New Year’s Eve moments with their communities.

The night topped last year’s live broadcast activity, with people sharing 47% more live videos than last year.

When you go live you can share your experiences with people you care about. With Facebook Live, people can still be in the same moment even if they aren’t in the same place.

People were excited to count down to 2018 with friends — wherever they were. We saw more than 3 times as many broadcasts with a friend on New Year’s Eve compared to an average day in December, making it the biggest day so far for Live With.

The video shows Facebook data on live broadcasts per minute as midnight struck around the world. Each small blip on the globe represents 100 live videos, each large burst represents 1,000 live videos. Countries are color-coded based on the percentage of users that posted live videos.

Wherever you were and however you celebrated, all of us at Facebook wish you a happy New Year!

Facebook is home to a wide variety of publishers and creators who make videos that connect people, spark conversation and build community. Today we’re sharing updates on video distribution and our efforts to build effective video monetization tools for our partners that complement great viewing experiences for people:

• Video distribution: Updating News Feed ranking to improve distribution of videos that people actively want to watch — for example, videos from Pages that have strong repeat viewership.
• Ad Breaks: Improving the viewing experience for people by updating our guidelines for Ad Breaks, and providing new metrics for publishers and creators to understand how their Ad Breaks perform.
• Pre-roll: Testing pre-roll ads in places where people intentionally go to watch videos, like Watch.

VIDEO DISTRIBUTION

Today, the majority of video discovery and watch time happens in News Feed. News Feed provides a great opportunity for publishers and creators to reach their audience, drive discovery, and start to build deeper connections for their content.

We are updating News Feed ranking to improve distribution of videos from publishers and creators that people actively want to watch. With this update, we will show more videos in News Feed that people seek out or return to watch from the same publisher or creator week after week — for example, shows or videos that are part of a series, or from partners who are creating active communities. Engaging one-off videos that bring friends and communities together have always done well in News Feed and will continue to do so.

We also want to make it easier for show creators to reach their existing community. For example, if your Show Page is linked to your existing Page, we will enable you to distribute episodes directly to all your followers. This will make it easier for show creators to grow an audience for new shows, and for people to connect with content they may be interested in. This is something many show creators have been asking for, and we will continue to improve the experience of creating and managing shows.

While News Feed will remain a powerful place for publishers and creators to grow and connect with their audience, over time we expect more repeat viewing and engagement to happen in places like Watch. The Discover tab in Watch will also prioritize shows that people come back to. As new shows build audiences, places like Watch are well suited for people to predictably catch up on the latest episodes and content from their favorite publishers and creators, and engage in a richer social viewing experience – for example, connecting with other fans in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show.

MONETIZATION SOLUTIONS

We are updating our monetization features to support the different types of video viewing experiences on our platform.

Branded Content

Branded content is a valuable way for publishers to generate more revenue and will continue to be available to all types of video on Facebook. We’ve seen a wide range of publishers and creators find success with branded content in News Feed, extending sponsorships or partnerships onto our platform in creative ways. Since the beginning of this year, the number of publishers and creators posting branded content each month has increased by 4x, driven in part by opening availability to all Pages.

Ad Breaks

Viewers tell us they prefer it when the video they are watching “merits” an Ad Break — for example, content they are invested in, content they have sought out, or videos from publishers or creators they care about and are coming back to. These videos tend to be longer, with more narrative development.

As a result, starting in January we will focus the expansion of Ad Breaks on shows, and Ad Break eligibility will shift to videos and episodes that are at least three minutes long, with the earliest potential Ad Break at the one minute mark. Previously, videos in the test were eligible for Ad Breaks if they were a minimum of 90 seconds, with the first Ad Break able to run at 20 seconds.

Our consumer research showed that moving from 90 second to three minute videos with Ad Breaks improved overall satisfaction. Furthermore, across initial testing, satisfaction increased 18% when we delayed the first Ad Break placement. Viewer satisfaction numbers are typically difficult to lift, so this indicates a positive shift — increasing the likelihood people will continue watching the content through the break.

To help creators and publishers better understand the performance of their Ad Breaks, we also recently introduced improvements to the metrics we provide. We added a dedicated Ad Break insights tab, so creators and publishers can view their video monetization performance in a dedicated place, separate from their video metrics. We also added two new metrics: Ad Break impressions at the video level and Ad Break CPMs at the video level.

Finally, we are updating the Live Ad Breaks test. The test will no longer support Profiles, and will only support Pages with more than 50k followers. We’re making these changes because we’ve found Profiles and Pages below this threshold are more likely to share live videos that fail to comply with our Content Guidelines for Monetization. Live video publishers below this threshold also tend to have smaller audiences for their broadcasts, and therefore aren’t able to garner meaningful revenue from Ad Breaks. We’ll continue to work jointly with our partners on testing and improving the product to deliver value.

Pre-roll

Next year, we will begin testing pre-roll ads in places where people proactively seek out content, like Watch. While pre-roll ads don’t work well in News Feed, we think they will work well in Watch because it’s a place where people visit and come back to with the intention to watch videos. We’ll start with 6-second pre-roll with the goal of understanding what works best for different types of shows across a range of audiences.

We’re excited about the future, and we’re committed to providing our community of publishers and creators with the solutions they need to build a thriving business on our platform.

Available to all Pages globally, Highlighted Shares showcases the top five Pages that have re-shared a video, ranked by views. The video publisher will also be able to see associated insights from re-sharers, like post engagement and average watch time.

Video publishers have requested more information about where people are watching and engaging with their videos to help inspire future collaborations with other Pages. We hope this update will better inform video publishers about how their videos are performing across Facebook, and enable them to connect with other Pages to build community.

We launched Rights Manager last year to help rights owners protect their video content at scale, and have continued to improve the tool. We’ve heard from rights owners that they’d like more ways to access Rights Manager capabilities, so today we are announcing new third-party integrations.

Three service providers — Friend MTS, MarkMonitor, and ZEFR — are integrating with the Rights Manager API to provide rights management on Facebook as a service. These companies are proven industry leaders in the rights management space.

We want to give rights owners access to Rights Manager in the ways that make the most sense for their business. Currently, rights owners can use Rights Manager through Page Publishing Tools and by integrating their applications with Rights Manager via the API. Today’s integrations expand access to Rights Manager functionality by allowing rights owners to work with service providers to help manage their intellectual property if that’s their preferred option.

If you’re already using Rights Manager and you’d like to work with one of these providers, you can reach out to the company directly. If you’re a rights owner not currently enrolled in Rights Manager, you can first apply for access here, and then reach out to the company of your choice. These integrations will be available in the coming weeks.

If you’re a service provider that is interested in integrating with the Rights Manager API, contact us here.

Since launch, we’ve seen many publishers use the Live API to deliver professional-quality live video experiences to their audiences.

As we work to improve the Live API experience, today we’re introducing new tools that help publishers and developers create more seamless Facebook Live broadcasts.

Updates to the Facebook Live API include:

Automated encoder configuration
Publishers have given us feedback that when going live through the Live API it can be challenging to constantly fine tune their encoder settings to ensure consistent, stable Facebook live streams.

With this update, the Live API now provides preview, start, and stop states for your encoder, and automatically configures it to the optimal settings for a Facebook Live broadcast, so you can be confident that you’re broadcasting the highest quality Live video to Facebook every time without having to manually adjust settings before every broadcast.

Frame-accurate start times
We know having a strong start to a broadcast is important, and we’ve heard from publishers that it can be confusing to determine exactly when a Live API broadcast is in fact live to viewers.

With this update, developers can now indicate the exact frame and moment to go live. One great use case for this is to implement a countdown clock that signals to the broadcaster the exact moment when a stream is live.

Publishers that programmatically connect to the Live API can enable these new features within their broadcast setup. Publishers can also work with a video solutions provider who has incorporated these updates. We’ve been working with Wowza to test these updates, which are now available in their live video encoding and delivery solution, ClearCaster.

We’re excited that all developers will be able to integrate these updates to the Live API and make their Facebook Live broadcasts even better and more seamless.

Developers can learn how to integrate these updates to the Live API from our Live API documentation.

Every day, people come to Facebook to connect with stories from creators and publishers they love. Fostering an ecosystem where creators and publishers of all sizes can connect with their fans and earn money for their work is a critical part of creating these connections and experiences for our community.

We want to support a diverse range of creators and publishers, which is why we’ve introduced a range of monetization options, including Branded Content and Instant Articles. More recently, we’ve been testing Ad Breaks with a group of publishers, and we’re working on opening it up more broadly.

As we continue to expand our monetization offerings, it’s important that we provide clear guidelines around what can and cannot be monetized on our platform. Many of these experiences are made possible through ads from over 5M advertisers on Facebook, and they need to feel confident and in control over where their ads appear.

That’s why today, we are introducing monetization eligibility standards. These standards provide clearer guidance around the types of publishers and creators that are eligible to earn money on Facebook, along with guidelines on the kind of content that can be monetized. We have similar standards for publishers monetizing their own sites and apps through the Audience Network — learn more here.

Standards on who can access monetization features on Facebook

To use any of our monetization features, you must comply with Facebook’s policies and terms, including our Community Standards, Payment Terms, and Page Terms. Our goal is support creators and publishers who are enriching our community. Those creators and publishers who are violating our policies regarding intellectual property, authenticity, and user safety, or are engaging in fraudulent business practices, may be ineligible to monetize using our features.

Creators and publishers must have an authentic, established presence on Facebook — they are who they represent themselves to be, and have had a profile or Page on Facebook for at least one month. Additionally, some of our features like Ad Breaks require a sufficient follower base, something that could extend to other features over time.

Those who share content that repeatedly violates our Content Guidelines for Monetization, share clickbait or sensationalism, or post misinformation and false news may be ineligible or may lose their eligibility to monetize.

Guidelines on what content can be monetized on Facebook

These guidelines provide more detail on the types of content that advertisers may find sensitive, and should help you make more informed decisions about what content to monetize. These apply to videos on Facebook today, and will extend to Instant Articles over time.

While the guidelines do not cover every scenario, they are a good indicator of what types of content are likely to generate more revenue. Keep in mind that even if your content is eligible for ads, some brands and advertisers may choose to use brand safety controls to tailor where their ads run.

If your content does not comply with these standards, we will notify you that we have removed the ads. If you believe your content should be eligible, you can reach out through the appeals channel.

These guidelines focus specifically on what content is eligible for ads. Your content may be impacted by these guidelines, but will remain on the platform provided it meets our Community Standards.

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We hope these standards and guidelines help you understand how to successfully earn money from your content on Facebook. This is part of our ongoing process to provide our partners with more clarity and transparency, and we remain committed to improving our products and experiences for people, publishers, creators and advertisers.

Today we announced Watch, a new platform for shows on Facebook. More information can be found here.

Watch is comprised of shows, a new type of video on Facebook. Shows are made up of episodes – live or recorded – that follow a consistent theme or storyline. Shows are a great format if you want to share a video series, like a weekly cooking show, a daily vlog, or a set of videos with recurring characters or themes.

Our goal is for Watch to be a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of passionate fans, and earn money for their work.

Initially, Watch will be available to a limited group of people in the U.S. on mobile, desktop, and our TV apps, before we make it available to more people in the U.S. in the coming weeks. Because we’re early with Watch, we’re starting by testing with a limited group of publishers and creators who are making shows. We are also funding some shows to help seed the ecosystem, gather feedback, and inspire others.

SHOW PAGES

We’re also introducing Show Pages to make it seamless to create a Facebook show and publish new episodes. Show Pages are organized in a way that makes it easy for people to understand what a show is all about, watch episodes and other related videos, and connect with communities that have formed around a show.

We think creating a show has a number of benefits, like the ability to reach a predictable and loyal audience. People will be able to follow the shows they like, and when there’s a new episode of a show, Facebook will inform the show’s followers and the episode will automatically appear in their Watchlist in Watch.

Over time, creators will be able to monetize their shows through Ad Breaks. We’ve been testing Ad Breaks over the past few months, and we will be slowly opening up availability to more creators to ensure we’re providing a good experience for the community. Creators can also create sponsored shows using our branded content tag.

If you would like to register your interest in creating a show, please visit this link. We’re excited to see how creators and publishers use shows to connect with their fans and community.

One of the best ways for creators to reach new audiences and broaden distribution of their videos on Facebook is when people re-share their videos. To make sure we’re meeting the needs of both creators and those who re-share content, we’re redesigning insights for re-shares.

We gathered feedback from creators and re-sharers and tested new metrics. We heard that creators want more information about which Pages are re-sharing their videos. In addition, creators put a lot of work and investment into the videos they create and share on Facebook, and they would prefer if re-sharers didn’t have access to certain metrics about their videos.

Since rolling out Live 360 to all Pages and Profiles in March, we’ve seen incredible uses of the medium. People have shared moments like weddings and vacations with their friends, and publishers and creators have immersed audiences in unique experiences, like going behind the scenes at a sports team’s warmup or on stage with a band during a show.

Today we’re excited to announce some updates that improve and simplify the Live 360 experience for both creators and audiences.

Live 360 Ready Program

First, we’re excited to launch the Live 360 Ready Program — an array of third-party 360 cameras and software solutions, vetted by our team, that provide great Live 360 experiences on Facebook. Today, the Live 360 Ready Program includes 11 cameras and 7 software suites that span a wide range of options, whether you simply want to go live via your phone to share personal moments, or you’re a professional publisher who needs robust camera and software solutions to pull off a complex production.

Each camera’s app or web experience will enable you to interact with your friends and followers through direct access to Facebook’s native reactions and comments. You’ll be able to recognize Live 360 Ready cameras and software offerings by the Facebook Live logo on their packaging or website. The current list of Live 360 Ready cameras and software includes:

• Cameras: Giroptic iO, Insta360 Nano, Insta360 Air, Insta360 Pro, ION360 U,  moto 360 camera, Nokia Ozo, Z CAM S1, 360Fly HD, 360Fly 4K, and 360Fly 4K Pro
• Software: Assimilate SCRATCH VR, Groovy Gecko, LiveScale, Teradek, Voysys, Wowza, Z CAM WonderLive

If you represent a camera or software company, visit facebook360.fb.com/live360 to learn more and download information about joining the Live 360 Ready Program.

4K Support and Watch in VR

We’re now supporting up to 4K resolution for Live 360 streams, meaning viewers can enjoy Live 360 moments in much higher fidelity. And for the first time, viewers will soon be able to enjoy Live 360 videos streamed at 4K in VR. Live 360 broadcasts will available to watch in VR — both while they’re happening and after they’re over — in our free Facebook 360 app for Gear VR, available on the Oculus Store. We’re excited to see all the great moments you share in 4K with Live 360, and how your friends and followers experience these moments in fully immersive VR.

Donate Buttons with Live 360 and Scheduled Live

We’re also bringing two popular Facebook Live features to Live 360: donate buttons and Scheduled Live, both of which can be added to broadcasts through our Live API.

With donate buttons, Verified Pages can raise funds for a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit when they stream in Live 360, or a nonprofit can add a donate button to their own Live 360 broadcast to encourage viewers to support their cause.

Scheduling a Facebook Live broadcast lets people know when to tune in and helps your broadcast get off to a strong start with the audience already in place. With Scheduled Live — now available to Live 360 broadcasts via the Live API or our live streaming tools — you can let your followers know the exact date and time your Live 360 broadcast will be. An announcement post will publish to News Feed, enabling your fans to opt in to a one-time reminder notification that will alert them when you’re about to go live. We hope this scheduling ability helps you build buzz and anticipation for your Live 360 moments!

To learn more about adding the donate button to Live 360 or setting up a Scheduled Live 360, visit www.facebook360.fb.com/live360 to download our Live 360 Getting Started Guide.

Post-Live Experience

To ensure that the great experience of watching Live 360 continues even after you’ve stopped streaming, we’re also adding stabilization to Live 360 for Profiles when our algorithm detects that a broadcast may be a little shaky.

Once you’ve finished a Live 360 broadcast, you can also use our Guide tool to direct viewers to the most important parts of your broadcast. The tool allows you to set up points of interest throughout your broadcast and auto-direct the field of view to those points of interest. You can access 360 Guide through your 360 Controls tab once you ‘Edit’ your video. Learn more about Guide here.

To understand the points of greatest interest in your Live 360 broadcast, you may want to refer to Heatmap, our tool to help you understand which parts of your video your audience engaged with the most. You can access Heatmaps (for broadcasts with at least 20,000 unique active viewers) from the Page Insights surface. Learn more about Heatmaps here.

Lastly, you can crosspost your Live 360 broadcast once it’s over to help get even more distribution. Learn about crossposting videos here.

Weekend of Live 360

Finally, we’re partnering with Blend Media and their network of talented 360 creators to share a series of Live 360 moments around the world this weekend using a range of the cameras listed above. Follow our Facebook 360 Page to watch these streams from Friday, July 28, through Sunday, July 30.

We can’t wait to see how you use these improvements and features to share even more Live 360 moments!

Downloads

Live 360 Visual Assets