Brands Can Now Livestream on Facebook

Back in September at Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit, Ted Zagat, head of ad product at Facebook, foretold a future in which the platform would be making a huge shift in emphasizing a particular type of content. “A year or two from now, we think Facebook will be mostly video, said Zagat. Since then, Facebook has rolled out some major changes, from an immersive video player to 360-degree video. Now, livestreaming video on the platform isn’t just for public figures anymore.

Yesterday, Facebook’s Vadim Lavrusik, Product Manager and Dave Capra, Engineering Manager posted that the social network is introducing ‘Live’ for verified pages.

“With Live, sports teams, media companies, brands, and other verified Pages can make announcements, share breaking news updates, take fans behind the scenes, host Q&As, and more,” says the post. 

“During your broadcast, you ll see the number of viewers, the names of other verified people or Pages who are tuning in, and a real-time stream of comments. When you end your broadcast, it will be published on your Timeline so that fans who missed it can watch the video at a later time, although you have the option to remove it just like any other post.”

Since the launch of ‘Live’ in August, Facebook says that thousands of public figures from athletes to politicians have engaged their fans with realtime video on the platform and has been “excited to see all the ways Live has been used so far.”