1. Facebook TV Is Here!

Kinda, sorta here anyway. The addition of a video button at the bottom of (some users) mobile apps is a big deal and definitely a big move for Facebook. Right now that button takes you to a list of live videos followed by a list of not-live videos. It appears that the Mighty Algorithm is putting your friends and brands you “Like” first, mixed in with People Who Have Paid Big Money To Have Their Videos Show Up In Your Feed.That’s a very unique experience in that they are essentially curating your playlist for you and not giving you the opportunity to browse, the way YouTube does. Is that a superior experience? It really depends on your personality. Think of it as a playlist vs station thing: some people like to make their own playlists (raises hand) and are driven absolutely crazy when music apps don’t give them that option (Looking at you, Pandora.) Others could be bothered to waste their time creating playlists and much prefer to have someone else do the curation for them. Why It MattersBecause we were right yet again, dammit!  And because while Facebook has the potential to shake up the TV industry big time, target number one is YouTube.This is good for Creators and consumers because competition is always good for Creators and consumers. It keeps both companies on their toes, forcing them to innovate in ways that benefit consumers and forcing them to reevaluate the way they treat Creators, the people who actually bring them the content they monetize.YouTube has been lazy about keeping its platform up to speed; innovations have been few and far between, so this is a good wake-up call for them. Which is not to count them out—they still have more users, more creators and the entire MCN universe. Not to mention billions of dollars to play with, thanks to parent company Alphabet.But let’s be real: YouTube is just a stop on the road to where Facebook really wants to be: television. Whether that’s full-on high production value original programming, clips from network TV shows or something in-between, they’ve got a lot of the right pieces in place, from audience data to an ad network to (finally) an actual delivery system. What You Need To Do About ItFacebook’s not making any moves into TV this year. But they’re thinking about it. Their Achille’s Heel is that like other Valley companies, they tend not to hire the right people, relying on random techies who know nothing about the TV business rather than people who know and understand the business. (For an example of why that’s important, take look at how valuable industry vet Ted Sarandos has been to Netflix.)Still, if you’re a Creator, you should definitely be thinking about what your Facebook strategy is and whether your audience will want to find you there.If you’re a network or MVPD, you’ve got a year or so before Facebook becomes an issue, but you should definitely be thinking about what they can do for you and how getting your shows in front of their 1.8 billion users can benefit you.  

2. Slouching Towards TV Everywhere

 With apologies to Joan Didion, slouching seems to be exactly what we are doing. Nielsen TAM, which was supposed to usher in the golden age of MVPD TV Everywhere is still floating around in beta. And so it fell to FCC Chairman Wheeler to (inadvertently) push things along.Wheeler unleashed his response to the MVPDs “Ditch The Box” proposal this week, requiring MVPDs to offer consumers a free app that gives them access to all their content on tablets, smartphones, gaming systems, streaming devices and smart TVs. The fact sheet further required MVPDs to supply apps on “widely deployed” platforms like Roku, iOS, Windows and Android— “widely deployed” being defined as any OS that shipped at least 5M devices in the past year.You can read all the details here. Why It Matters Because finally, TVE. And because finally, bye-bye STB. It’s what everyone’s been wanting for quite some time— viewers, anyway. The MVPDs have been saying they want it, but they’re also addicted to the millions they make each month from those STB rentals, ignoring the millions they lose in ill will by refusing to get rid of them.Wheeler’s decision is also a huge setback for Google, who had hoped that the Unlock The Box proposal would give them a foot in the door of the TV industry, along with the ability to cross-reference all that set top box data with their search and other data. What You Need To Do About It If you’re an MVPD, you need to hire competent UX designers and make sure those TVE apps are as user friendly as possible as well as pretty.If you’re a network you need to lean on Nielsen to get TAM out there—the MPVDs have two years to comply, which should give Nielsen more than enough time to (finally) make TAM a reality.  

TV[R]EV is written, curated and incubated by the BRaVe Ventures team. Find TV[R]EV on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date on the TV[R]EVOLUTION.