At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) happening in Amsterdam, social media giant Facebook has announced a slew of updates for video creators and publishers including changes to live video broadcasting, Facebook’s Watch Party and Creator Studio.
The company also announced ways to make the most out of Watch Party events, new metrics to track video performance and a long-wanted scheduling option for Instagram/IGTV content for up to six months in advance.
After listening to feedback from users who have been regularly broadcasting live on its platform, Facebook is rolling out several highly-requested features, available only to Facebook Pages – not Profiles. Thanks to a Live API, content publishers can now test new production setups, interactive features and show formats before going live by using a ‘rehearsal’ feature, which will broadcast live only to Page admins and editors. Publishers can trim the beginning and end of a live video, and can live now broadcast live for up to eight hours, which is just double of the previous limit of four hours. Publishers can now simulcast to more than one app via the Live API.
For Watch Party, Pages will now have the ability to schedule a party in advance in order to build anticipation, support for ‘replays’ and the ability to tag business partners in branded content and new analytics.
Facebook also added two new metrics to the Creator Studio -- minutes viewed and unique 60s viewers. The unique 60s viewers include the total number of unique users that watched at least 60 seconds in a Watch Party. These new features are in addition to metrics such as reach and engagement. The Live Commenting feature is also now globally available.
With the Instagram & IGTV scheduling, content publishers and creators will now be able to schedule their Instagram Feed and IGTV content for up to six months. According to the company, Instagram Feed and IGTV drafting and editing will also become available in the coming months.
The Instagram & IGTV scheduling feature can be used by all the creators and publishers having Facebook Pages. Story scheduling is not yet available.
