Facebook announced Wednesday it would be launching a section within “Watch” video section for news shows produced exclusively for Facebook by news outlets like Fox News, CNN, and others.
“Watch is the destination on Facebook where people come together around video,” Facebook’s head of global news partnerships Campbell Brown said in a statement. “We’ve seen that people enjoy coming to Watch to find timely, relevant content and to catch up with the publishers and creators they care about. We think that this is a great opportunity to test a viewing destination for high quality news content within Watch.”
The first lineup of funded shows, according to the announcement, will debut later in the summer and will include local and national news.
The first roll out will feature shows made specifically for Facebook from CNN, Fox News, Mic, ATTN, ABC, and more. The shows will also include known anchors like CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Fox News’ Shepard Smith.
“With this effort, we are testing a destination for high quality and timely news content on the platform,” Brown said in the statement.
Facebook found itself in the middle of a privacy scandal earlier this year after millions of users’ data was compromised by a company that worked with research firm Cambridge Analytica. Since then, Facebook has been working on restructuring its timeline and privacy settings to make sure people only see what they want they say they want to see and no private information is being shared without users’ consent.
