Details of Facebook’s plans to launch high-quality TV programming to take on the likes of Netflix have been unveiled with talk the social media behemoth was prepared to pay as much as $US3 million an episode.
A report in The Wall Street Journal has revealed Facebook is already in talks with major Hollywood producers with plans to launch the first of its programs by the northern hemisphere’s autumn.
Facebook playing in the SVOD space would be a further blow for Aussie free-to-airs already struggling to attract eyeballs to shows that can’t attract $300,000 a series funding let alone the sort of money Facebook is reportedly talking about splashing.
According to the The Wall Street Journal article, Facebook will be chasing a Millennial audience and already has a relationships drama called Strangers and a game show called Last State Standing in the pipeline.
The report also said that Facebook programs would be released in a traditional manner rather than in an entire block at once and it said it would reveal its audience viewer numbers unlike Netflix or Amazon.
The news of pending $3 million-an-episode TV shows coming to Australia follows comments from former Nine boss David Gyngell in the press this week who suggested high-quality local TV would be the key to getting embattled broadcaster Network Ten out of its current woes.
Gyngell said things like sport, news, current affairs and reality would become the staple turf of Australia’s free-to-air players.
“When you are free in someone’s loungeroom, people will come back to you,” Gyngell told The Australian. “With the right management Channel Ten can still be in good shape, it will still be spending $600 million a year on programming.”
