Facebook Reportedly Planning To Start Showing Ads In The Middle Of Videos

The company is reportedly testing out a “mid-roll” format to help generate revenue from its video content.

January 09, 2017
Facebook Reportedly Planning To Start Showing Ads In The Middle Of Videos Justin Tallis / Getty Images

Facebook is planning to roll out a system for generating ad revenue from its video content, according to a Monday report from Recode. The company plans to start offering content publishers the option to incorporate ads into their videos soon, generating revenue to be split between both parties.

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According to the report, the social network will only introduce "mid-roll" ads to start, meaning that users would only see ads after watching at least 20 seconds of a video. Additionally, publishers will only have the option to run ads on videos that run for 90 seconds or longer.

The "mid-roll" format runs in contrast to say, YouTube, which typically runs ads before the start of a video. Recode speculates that the rules are intended to encourage longer clips that keep the attention of their audience for longer. Despite those differences though, Facebook will reportedly offer the same split as YouTube on all revenue generated, offering publishers 55% of all sales.

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The report comes just weeks after news that Facebook will also be introducing new copyright identification software, presumably geared to help identify infringement and pave the way toward generating revenue from videos containing copyrighted music.

Read the full report here, via Recode.

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Facebook Reportedly Planning To Start Showing Ads In The Middle Of Videos