Can Facebook take on Netflix with its first season of original shows? :-: the Guardian

The launch of the social network’s new streaming service, Watch, sees a range of offerings – but the strategy to focus on reality TV might limit long term success

There was something crushingly inevitable about the news that Facebook, the world’s largest social network, would be throwing its hat into the original programming ring.

Earlier this summer, it was announced that the social-network-turned-all-consuming-corporation would be funding a slate of original episodic content – documentary series, reality shows, and scripted programs – that would be hosted on the website’s new Watch feature, which appears to the left of the newsfeed, just below the Messenger tab. While other streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu earn revenue by charging subscription fees, Facebook is leaning into originals in an effort to siphon advertising dollars away from network and cable television and toward its own social behemoth, where easily shareable short-form video has been thriving for years.

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The Guardian