Facebook entices content creators with new community-centered video platform

Facebook announced several new live video features today that will allow creators to make their live streams more like games with polls and quizzes. The features are similar to those that creators on YouTube have had access to for months through the recent addition of the Community tab. These new features could entice established creators to migrate to Facebook’s video platform.

Facebook says these features will reinvent traditional entertainment formats as more “community-centric,” and it noted a trend in more collaborative video consumption that relies on audience participation. YouTube integrated polling and collaboration with audiences when the company announced its Community tab last November. With this feature, creators are able to ask their audiences what they should broadcast next and build anticipation for upcoming video series, for example.

New ways to profit from video content will arrive on Facebook soon as well. The company will allow more creators to add commercial breaks and monthly subscriptions. It will also introduce a new way of finding paid partnerships with a feature known as Brand Collabs Manager.

The company announced several creators who are launching live game shows on Facebook, including BuzzFeed’s “Outside Your Bubble,” “Confetti” from Insider, and Fresno’s “What’s in The Box.” These will all be live interactive game shows that will air regularly on Facebook Watch.

In a report from TechCrunch, Facebook dodged questions about whether the new features were inspired by the success of HQ Trivia, a live mobile game show that has been holding on to audiences of at least 1 million people per game in recent months.

:story: The Verge