We’ve continued to have meaningful conversations with publishers as part of the Facebook Journalism Project to better serve the needs of news publishers and readers on Facebook. Media executives told us about the challenge they face using multiple platforms to share their stories – more distribution formats create more content management costs. And developers who attended our Facebook Journalism Project Hackathons in New York and London also asked for a way Instant Articles could support other major publishing formats.

To address this, we’re excited to introduce an extension to the open source Software Development Kit (SDK) used to build Instant Articles; the SDK will now also build content publishable as Google AMP and, soon, Apple News articles.

The updated SDK transforms the markup publishers use to create Instant Articles to generate the code needed to build these other formats, removing what we’ve heard can be a resource-heavy step in publishing on multiple platforms. With an easy way to get from one markup format to another, publishers can then plug-and-play the markup in their content management systems or third party publishing tools.

Our documentation has details on how to use the extension.

The SDK already enables developers to easily integrate publishing Instant Articles into their content management systems. By supporting a gateway to generate content across platforms, we’re also making it easy for publishers to apply some of the custom styling templates in AMP and Apple News that they have created in the Instant Articles Style Editor. For example the custom formats, like fonts, colors and captions, that publishers have designed in the Style Editor, will be closely mirrored in the other formats.

This new flexibility with Instant Articles is part of our commitment to open standards of collaboration with the community. Our goal is to give publishers control over extending and modifying the Instant Articles building blocks to be the best storytellers on every platform.

The SDK extension for Google AMP is now available and transformations for Apple News will be ready in the coming weeks as we learn how these tools can best support our partners.

The 10th edition of the Indian Premier League concluded Sunday with a dramatic final over victory by the now three-time champion Mumbai Indians over Rising Pune Supergiant.

Over the course of the tournament, 120 million people joined the IPL conversation on Facebook and recorded 350 million interactions related to the season on the platform. More people joined the conversation this season than any IPL Facebook has measured.

Virat Kolhi was the most talked about player on Facebook, while the Mumbai Indians was the most talked about team this season.

IPL

Throughout the 47-day tournament, the Indian Premier League posted video of team warm-ups before each match and closed the tournament on Facebook by sharing video of the championship trophy presentation. Additionally, the league shared images of key match moments as they happened and special off-the-field moments, such as Shah Rukh Khan and AbRam at the Kolkata Knight Riders‘ opening match.

Teams

The IPL Champion Mumbai Indians went live as the team returned to the hotel to celebrate their victory, foreshadowed by their popular music video highlighting the team’s dancing prowess.

If there was one theme on Facebook for teams this season, it was cake. Teams including the Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad shared their cake cutting celebrations using Facebook Live and videos during the season, allowing fans to participate in this fun tradition with their favourite players.

Throughout the IPL season, teams shared unique moments with fans, giving them unprecedented access to their favourite players and owners.

2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad brought fans along to training sessions and team meetings including going live for this exercise session in the pool. The Delhi Daredevils shared pre and post match moments including this live on pitch interview with Man of the Match Corey Anderson.

Kings XI Punjab showcased its team’s playful side multiple times during the season; including kicking off a season-long prank war with this video featuring Marcus Stoinis and an unsuspecting Manan Vohra. Meanwhile, the Kolkata Knight Riders shared the preparation strategies for the IPL playoffs.

Players and Owners

During the IPL season, players used Facebook to directly connect with their fans in personal, authentic ways. For example, Ajinkya Rahane showcased the dancing skills of his teammates MS Dhoni and Ben Stokes. In addition, Shikhar Dhawan surprised his fans with a Facebook Live Q&A and Virat Kolhi wished Sachin Tendulkar Happy Birthday with a “few” of his closest friends.

Afghanistan player Rashid Khan also shared his feelings after making history during his first IPL match.

Yuvraj Singh shared a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into a commercial shoot and poked fun at his good friend and teammate Ashish Nehra.

Media

News and sports publishers, broadcasters, and personalities, including Aaj Tak, ABP News, Crictracker, Firstpost, Hotstar, Sportskeeda, Sky Sports and The Quint, took to Facebook Live throughout the event to provide exclusive match commentary and analysis, as well as engage and entertain fans during the IPL.

ESPN Cricinfo broadcast its show ESPN Matchday Live on Facebook, delivering daily previews followed by Facebook fan Q&As every innings break.

News publishers from across the country joined the T20 carnival.

Beyond the pitch

The IPL action didn’t end on the pitch, as commentators, legends, team owners and other public figures shared their favourite moments on Facebook.

• Mumbai Indians Icon and Legend Sachin Tendulkar spots “the real” Malinga in Rajkot
• Virender Sehwag shares a lighthearted moment from the IPL opening ceremony
• Commentator Matthew Hayden discusses the atmosphere of the IPL Finals
• Preity Zinta on the bus with her Kings XI Punjab team following a well earned victory
• Gujarat Lions owner Keshav Bansal released a video series entitled #ChaiWithKeshav

Here are 10 standout live videos:

1. WOODY ALLEN visited Facebook Media Central to go live timed to the 40th anniversary of Annie Hall.

2. GOOD MORNING AMERICA went Live in 360 swimming with sharks and diving into the blue.

3. THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT gave fans a live tour of the Late Show’s Props Department including an exclusive behind the scenes look at Stephen’s objects and wardrobe that are used in the show on a nightly basis.

4. MLB used Facebook Live to broadcast the National League showdown between the Reds and Rockies, as Colorado emerged with the 12-6 win.

5. ABC7 went live as rescue crews tried to guide a large humpback whale back to the ocean after it got stuck in the Ventura Harbor.

6. GARTH BROOKS went live from Bridgestone Arena ahead of the Nashville Predators playoff game to announce that his wife, Trisha Yearwood, will be singing the National Anthem at the Stanley Cup.

7. THE CROSSFIT GAMES leveraged Facebook Live to broadcast the first week of the Regionals, as the sport’s top athletes competed for a spot in The CrossFit Games.

8. CBS NEW YORK and several other news organizations went live as a car plowed into pedestrians in Times Square.

9. ITV NEWS answered questions in the PM’s first ever Facebook Live Q&A.

10. REAL MADRID went live for the post-match celebration after the club captured its first La Liga title in five years.

Since launching in April 2016, Instant Articles has helped publishers across India reach new audiences. Because Instant Articles loads natively within Facebook, it’s not reliant on strong mobile connections. Indian publishers have taken advantage of this technology to attract new readers, giving them a vastly improved experience on Facebook.

As a result, more audiences have greater access to some of the country’s biggest publishers, including Indiatimes, Dainik Jagran, Hindustan Times, Sandesh, NDTV, and more. Whether it’s through sharing faster loading articles, delivering higher-quality ads, using new design tools or including high-res media, Instant Articles has improved the way that Indian publishers are engaging with their readers.

We spoke with 11 publishers, ranging from the country’s biggest papers and television stations to recently launched digital-only publications, about the results they’re seeing on the platform.

All numbers provided by the publishers and sourced from their own internal analytics and insights.

Indiatimes

30% better scroll depth in Instant Articles compared to mobile web

40% higher clickthrough rates in direct-sold ads compared to mobile web

30% higher eCPMs using Facebook’s Audience Network

Indiatimes creates content designed to be consumed on social platforms. Wanting to get its articles to the biggest audience possible, Indiatimes signed up with Instant Articles in November, 2015 and publishes 100% of its eligible content to the platform. In addition to seeing a 70% rise in mobile traffic, the publisher has seen clickthrough rates on direct-sold ads perform 40% better when compared with the mobile web.

The publisher attributes this success to the design and placement of ads in Instant Articles, as well as fast load times. Not only are readers better able to load and consume Indiatimes articles, but its ads are more likely to be seen and engaged with. To best optimize an ad’s placement in an article, the publisher uses the automatic ad placement feature. This feature ensures each article reaches its maximum ad density and optimizes an ad’s placement to be where readers are most likely to engage with it.

“Naturally, the ability to deliver content seamlessly to our audience is an essential prerequisite to our strategy of creating ‘stories that matter to our generation.’ The quick load times and immersive storytelling features of Instant Articles help our readers engage with our content even better.” Angad Bhatia, COO, Indiatimes.com

NDTV

Unique users increased by 211% and traffic increased 343% on Instant Articles between April 2016 and April 2017

350% growth in revenue from Audience Network in Instant Articles between April 2016 and April 2017

340% increase in new users to NDTV between April 2016 and April 2017

NDTV Convergence, which runs NDTV television stations and ndtv.com, has over 120 million users coming to their digital properties each month. In 2015, they signed up with Instant Articles hoping to improve overall engagement, achieve greater distribution, and improve monetization. As a result, NDTV has seen significant growth in the key segments of news and entertainment, and has performed beyond expectations in the Hindi market, where Instant Articles traffic has grown 140% since the beginning of the year.

“In mid-2015, when Facebook announced Instant Articles, we were quite interested. The platform provided a seamless experience and we were keen to provide this new experience to our readers. We have come a long way since then. Our user base on Instant Articles has increased by more than 200% in the last year. Seeing our progress, we opened up more of our portfolio to Instant Articles. The reduction in load time and the seamless transition into a company branded article has shown impact on distribution, engagement, and monetization.” Suparna Singh, CEO, NDTV Convergence

Hindustan Times

6x growth in Facebook referral traffic since adopting Instant Articles in October 2015

55% more time spent on Instant Articles compared to mobile web

HT Media, which owns and operates the digital and print editions of Hindustan Times, was founded in 1924 and now oversees the English language Hindustan Times and Hindustan, a Hindi newspaper. The publisher uses Instant Articles to improve the overall quality of images, video, and slideshows to their 3.7 million readers across India. Many readers were getting an inferior or incomplete storytelling experience because of slow load times. Not only has Instant Articles helped traffic growth, but the platform’s creative storytelling tools and high-quality media has improved brand affinity, according to the company’s chief content officer.

“Hindustan Times was one of the first news sites from India that embraced Instant Articles as part of an effort to expand HT’s digital reach and improve audience engagement. A lower page load time coupled with an enhanced audience experience, which is what Facebook Instant articles brought, helped HT significantly grow its traffic in the past year, especially among mobile consumers of news. Beyond the numbers, Instant Articles has served HT well in building brand affinity and its journalism ambitions.” Rajesh Mahapatra, Chief Content Officer, Hindustan Times

Arré

50% growth in referral traffic from Facebook since joining Instant Articles

25-30% increase in time spent and engagement vs mobile web

30-35% of Arré traffic comes from Instant Articles

Arré is a digital media publisher that tells stories across multiple digital formats and genres with a focus on arresting visuals and non-traditional narratives. Stories include everything from fictional web series to long form articles, reality shows, and documentaries. Arré places emphasis on high-quality visuals and narratives built for ease of use in a digital space. Instant Articles helped them deliver on their promise of a superior reading experience, and reach a greater audience.

“We love the user experience that Facebook Instant Articles offers our readers. At Arré, our content is a combination of short-form, long form, and multimedia content. Instant articles has transformed the user experience across all formats as it loads seamlessly on a slow connection. Some of the newer features that Instant Articles has innovated with such as the option to like the Page or subscribe to our weekly newsletter within the Instant Article format are working well for us.” Ajay Chacko, Co-Founder and CEO, Arré

ABP News

250% growth in traffic from Instant Articles between April 2016 and April 2017

4x higher clickthrough rates on Audience Network ads in Instant Articles vs mobile web

More than 65,000 e-mail newsletter signups from Instant Articles between March and April 2017

ABP News Network is the largest Indian language news network in India, operating across four channels that collectively reach more than 100 million viewers weekly. Its digital properties get 40 million unique visitors each month across the languages of Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Gujarati. The broadcasting company launched Instant Articles for each of its languages, and recently started using the Instant Articles call-to-action units to encourage readers to sign up for their email newsletter and like their Page.

“ABP News Network started Instant Articles on Facebook on all our language pages including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi and Gujarati. From the time of launch we have seen exceptional speeds in page load times. Audience retention is also growing month on month with people repeatedly consuming content on Instant Articles. The audience has, over a one year period, grown 250%.” Ramakrishnan Laxman, Digital Head, ABP News

Mathrubhumi

3x increase in clickthrough rates on ads in Instant Articles vs mobile web

Mathrubhumi started in 1923 as a publication for India’s freedom movement and is published in the language Malayalam. With 15 editions and a circulation of 1.5 million across India, the publisher uses Instant Articles to deliver a new source of revenue through Audience Network, and to give its readers a smoother content experience.

“Mathrubhumi has always set itself apart through swift and crisp content delivery. So, when Instant Articles came around with its super-fast load time and excellent UX across mobile devices, it resonated right away with us and our audience. The 3x increase in CTR on ads delivered via Instant Articles was quite the perk. Overall, as a news platform, Instant Articles and Mathrubhumi go hand in hand.” Shreyams Kumar M.V., Joint Managing Director, Mathrubhumi Group

Dainik Jagran

187% increase in mobile traffic between March 2016 (month prior to starting Instant Articles) and March 2017

70% more time spent on an Instant Article vs mobile web on average

72% of all Instant Articles readers are new to Jagran

Dainik Jagran is one of the largest newspapers in India, with nearly 4 million print subscribers. The publisher started publishing Instant Articles in April, 2016 and has seen overall traffic increase 3x to nearly 13 million views a month, with Instant Articles accounting for more than half of that growth. By improving the overall quality of images, videos and slideshows and delivering a richer, more immersive storytelling experience, time spent on articles increased by 70%.

“The clean interface of Instant Articles along with rich media capabilities and quick load time is helping us to serve content to the new users on Facebook and engage them relevantly.” Bharat Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Jagran New Media

CricTracker

30% increase in overall revenue since using Instant Articles

300% increase in article completion rates vs. mobile web

Founded in July 2015, CricTracker reports on everything about cricket and has a reader base of more than 18 million. They used Instant Articles to successfully expand their reach further into both the India market, and fans of India cricket around the world.

“We at CricTracker broke all our previous records in terms of number of articles published, page views in a month, unique readers, as well as revenue. We almost touched 30 million page views a month in April and that wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t opted for allotting the major share of our articles to Instant Articles.” Syed Sujjad, CEO/Founder, Cricket Tracker Networks

Sandesh

27% increase in average time spent on Instant Articles compared to mobile web

40% higher ad impressions on Instant Articles than mobile web

30-40% higher eCPM on Audience Network compared to mobile web

Sandesh is a 90-year-old publisher with several regional-focused publications across India. They started using Instant Articles to improve the overall experience for users, particularly those with limited mobile connections. They quickly noticed an increase in average time spent per article, as well as improved engagement with ads. The publisher uses the automatic placement feature to help optimize where ads are placed and it’s led to greater CPMs and better ad fill than the mobile web.

“The most amazing feature about Instant Articles is the user experience. The product works seamlessly with poor internet connections and we’ve seen average time spent on articles go up.” Chirag Shah, Digital Manager, Sandesh

KoiMoi

300% greater revenue growth in Instant Articles compared to mobile web

60% growth in overall traffic since starting to publish Instant Articles

50% lower bounce rate in Instant Articles compared to mobile web

Koimoi is one of India’s most popular Bollywood news destinations with a Facebook community of nearly 1.6 million followers. The publisher joined primarily to create a new revenue stream and increase engagement. The publisher has seen their revenue grow 3x greater in Instant Articles and readers are more likely to interact with their content as a result.

“The combination of increase in engagement and revenues is the best gift a publisher like koimoi could ask for!” Alok Kejriwal, CEO/Co-founder

Chai Bisket

5x greater CPMs on ads from Audience Network in Instant Articles compared to other ad networks

The audience for Chai Bisket, an entertainment news site, has always been tech savvy and conscious of the user experience. Their 18-30 year old readers demand the latest innovative formats, and Instant Articles helped keep the company at the front of the market. The publisher monetizes these articles using Audience Network, which provides a better experience to both users and the company overall.

“Instant Articles have been a blessing in disguise for the users in terms of the load time, the ease of consuming the content, and the way it’s designed to perfectly work on any mobile screen size. From a publisher perspective, our CPMs from the ads on Instant Articles have been performing 5x more than the other ad networks. The ease of payments from the Audience Network on Instant Articles has been fantastic. For a platform like ours where the readership to our site is majorly driven from social platforms like Facebook, Instant Articles has been of huge help!” Anurag & Sarath, Founders, Chai Bisket

The goal of News Feed is to connect people to the stories they care about most. When we make updates to News Feed, we rely on a set of core values which guide our work. These News Feed values, along with Facebook’s Community Standards, should always help inform the way people think about publishing on Facebook.

Recently we’ve announced several updates to News Feed which are specifically focused on improving the integrity of the information you find on Facebook. This work is targeting misinformation, sensationalism, clickbait and posts that fall outside of our Community Standards. As we continue this effort, here are some basic guideposts for publishers to keep in mind to reach their audience on Facebook.

People on Facebook Value Meaningful, Informative Stories

People expect the stories in their feed to be meaningful to them — and we have learned over time that people value stories that they consider informative. We are not in the business of picking which issues the world should read about, but we are in the business of connecting people with the stories they find most meaningful. Publishers should create meaningful and informative stories that their audiences will find interesting.

• Meaningful: When ranking News Feed based on how meaningful each story is to each person, we look at many personal signals, such as how close someone is to the person or page posting, stories they’d want to talk to their friends and family about, spend time reading, and videos they’d spend time watching. We also look at more universal signals like the overall engagement (likes, comments, shares) that a post has. Publishers should focus on understanding the audiences they want to reach, so they can create content meaningful to them.
• Informative: One of our News Feed values is that feed should be informative, because people value stories that they consider informative. Something that one person finds informative or interesting may be different from what another person finds informative or interesting — this could be a post about a current event, a story about a celebrity, a piece of local news, or a recipe. We’re always working to better understand what is informative to each person, so those stories appear higher up in their feed. Publishers should focus on creating content their audiences will find new, interesting, and informative.

People on Facebook Value Accurate, Authentic Content

As we’ve said previously, people want to see accurate information on Facebook, and so do we. People tell us that authentic stories are the ones that resonate most. So we work hard to understand what type of posts people consider genuine, so we can rank them higher in News Feed. And we work to understand what kinds of stories people find misleading, sensational and spammy, to make sure people see those less. Publishers should focus on posting accurate, authentic content.

• Clear headlines: Pages should avoid headlines that withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate or sensationalize the article to create misleading expectations. See more best practices here.
• Spam: Pages should should not deliberately try and game News Feed to get more distribution than they normally would.
• Accurate information: We know there is misinformation on Facebook, and we take this very seriously. False information is harmful to our community, it makes the world less informed, and it erodes trust.

People on Facebook Value Standards for Safe, Respectful Behavior

Facebook is a community of people. Our Community Standards reflect our collective values for what should and should not be allowed on the platform. These policies will help you understand what type of sharing is allowed on Facebook, and what type of content is out-of-bounds. We think it’s possible to be inclusive without making Facebook a place where people are subjected to attacks, hate, inappropriate content, or other harmful behavior.

We believe strongly that people should feel – and be – safe and respectful when they use Facebook. To help balance these needs and interests of a diverse community, we may remove certain kinds of sensitive content or limit the audience that sees it. Learn more about how we do that here. Publishers should follow our Community Standards.

• Keeping you safe: We remove content, disable accounts, and work with law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety. Learn more about how Facebook handles abusive content here.
• Encouraging respectful behavior: To serve the needs of our diverse community, we may remove or limit audiences for certain kinds of sensitive content. This includes nudity, hate speech, violence and graphic content. Learn more about how we do that here.

Here are 10 standout live videos:

1. BLAKE SHELTON went live with surprise guest, Kelly Clarkson to announce that Kelly will be a coach on season 14 of The Voice.

2. NEW YORK’S PIX 11 used Facebook Live to share updates after gallons of oil were leaked into the East River and Con Ed crews raced to clean up the huge oil slick caused by a transformer malfunction.

3. JJ WATT used Facebook Live multiple times to bring fans behind-the-scenes at the JJ Watt Charity Classic, a charity softball game and home run derby Watt hosted at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

4. WASHINGTON POST WORLD went live as Emmanuel Macron’s supporters celebrate his election victory outside the Louvre.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 DIRECTOR JAMES GUNN used Facebook Live to answer fan questions in a spoiler-filled Q&A about the blockbuster.

6. FOX NEWS went live from President Donald J. Trump‘s commencement address at Liberty University.

7. After its final match at White Hart Lane, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR went live from the farewell ceremony to celebrate the club’s 118 years in the historic stadium.

8. THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON went live from backstage with Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan.

9. The cast of ALIEN: COVENANT visited Facebook Media Central in New York to answer fan questions about the film.

10. NETWORK A leveraged Facebook Live to broadcast the latest Formula DRIFT event at Road Atlanta.

Here are 10 standout live videos:

1. GOOD MORNING AMERICA revealed the name of April the Giraffe‘s baby live.

2. METALLICA went Live and included the donate in live feature to raise funds for a foundation and give fans a sneak peek of the WorldWired Tour the night before the first show.

3. NIKE went live from Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy for “Breaking2,” as a trio of distance runners attempted to complete a marathon in less than two hours. Eliud Kipchoge came closest, running the 26.2 miles in two hours and 25 seconds.

4. CNN was live from the Rose Garden where President Donald Trump was expected to sign an executive order that could allow churches and other religious organizations to become more politically active, according to officials.

5. BALLISLIFE used Facebook Live to broadcast the 2017 Ballislife High School All-American Game, as college basketball’s future stars showcased their skills in Long Beach, Calif. The broadcast took advantage of the interactive and social nature of Facebook, as viewers were able to judge dunks from the dunk contest and vote on the game’s MVP.

6. BLADE RUNNER 2049 used Facebook Live to debut their new trailer and Q&A with stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford with director Denis Villeneuve.

7. The DALLAS COWBOYS went live from their Home Run Derby fundraiser, leveraging the new Facebook Live Donate button to enable people to donate to The Salvation Army DFW Metroplex Command.

8. TODAY FOOD hosted a live “dip off” to gauge people’s favorite dip to eat with tortilla chips on Cinco de Mayo.

9. The GOLF CHANNEL went live as instructor Michael Breed provided tips and answered fan questions from the driving range at THE PLAYERS Championship.

10. THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON used live with a puppy cam and from the audience.

Local news publishers across the country use Facebook to deepen their relationships with readers by sharing the stories that matter most to their community. We looked at some top videos from the past month covering the start of baseball season, the New Orleans Jazz Fest, the Boston Marathon, and more.

1. The Chicago Tribune created a powerful video about two former gang rivals now working together to keep the peace in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

2. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette caught Pirates pitcher Antonio Bastardo trying to save the life of a bird that was injured during batting practice.

3. A man from outside of Syracuse, New York, bowled a perfect game in just 86 seconds. Syracuse.com shared a video of this possibly world-record breaking moment.

4. Heavy weather postponed the start of Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Nola.com went live to show off the torrential rain and then shared a photo to Instagram of the efforts to pump water from the festival grounds.

5. KTLA 5 News went live after a recent school shooting in San Bernardino.

6. The Denver Post put together a video montage of the sights and sounds of the Colorado Rockies opening day at Coors Field in downtown Denver.

7. CBS Boston captured a special Boston Marathon moment as Jose Sanchez, a veteran who lost his leg serving in Afghanistan, crossed the finish line while waving an American flag.

8. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser went live from the middle of the March for Science through downtown Honolulu.

9. The Boston Globe put a 360 degree camera behind second base in Fenway Park on opening day to capture the pre-game ceremonies.

10. ABC 33/40 went live to warn its audience of severe weather as it approached Birmingham, Alabama.

Have a story you’d like to share? Post it to our News, Media & Publishing on Facebook group.

Recent Product Updates

Introducing Reactions in Crowdtangle

Two new features have been added to Crowdtangle. You can now rank Facebook posts based on all six reactions and set custom weights for your notifications.

Create Page Like and Email Sign-up Call-To-Action Units In Instant Articles

We’ve worked closely with partners to create and test Page Like and Email Sign-Up call-to-action units, prompts for readers to like a publisher’s page or sign up for an email newsletter from within an Instant Article. Check out the blog post for more information about how to incorporate the unit into your articles.

Here are 10 standout live videos:

1. Birmingham’s ABC 33/40 meteorologist went live for over an hour straight to share live severe weather coverage updates with the community.

2. ROGER FEDERER leveraged Facebook Live to broadcast “Match for Africa 4,” a charity match featuring the the 18-time Grand Slam champion, fellow pro John Isner, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready. The broadcast featured the new Facebook Live Donate button, which enabled people to donate to the Roger Federer Charitable Fund, Inc.directly on Facebook.

3. VOX shared a video of Senator Cory Booker interviewing Ezra Klein for a discussion on politics, life, and everything in between live from Vox Conversations Unconference.

4. KEVIN SPACEY went Live while riding a bike in Venice, California to talk to fans directly about his new play “Darrow.”

5. FOX NEWS went live with a rally that President Trump held for supporters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to commemorate his first 100 days in office.

6. FC BARCELONA used Facebook Live to broadcast a match between retired El Clásico rivals, as the Barça legends defeated the Real Madrid legends, 3-2.

7. For the NFL Draft, a number of publishers leveraged Facebook Live, including YAHOO SPORTS and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, which each delivered interactive live shows on Facebook, and ALABAMA FOOTBALL, LSU FOOTBALL and the PHILADELPHIA EAGLES, which each went live to bring fans behind the scenes.

8. Ahead of the Met Gala, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART hosted a special Live walkthrough of the Rei Kawakubo exhibition led by Andrew Bolton, director of The Costume Institute at The Met.

9. Country music festival, STAGECOACH, featured exclusive ‘artist on artist’ conversations on Facebook Live for fans around the world with over 20 musicians.

10. GORDON RAMSAY announced his new Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas exclusively on Facebook Live.

]]> https://media.fb.com/2017/05/01/the-live-blog-may-1-2017/feed/ 0 media-blog_live-header wbleakley https://media.fb.com/2017/04/27/improvements-to-rights-manager/ https://media.fb.com/2017/04/27/improvements-to-rights-manager/#respond Thu, 27 Apr 2017 19:00:14 +0000 http://media.fb.com/?p=6107 ]]> By Xiaoyin Qu, Product Manager

We launched Rights Manager a year ago to help rights owners manage and protect their video content at scale. Since then we’ve listened to feedback from our partners as we’ve continued to improve the tool, and we’ve consistently heard that rights owners would like greater automation and control in Rights Manager. Today we’re announcing new automated rules for Rights Manager that will better support rights owners’ business objectives.

With Rights Manager, rights owners can find matches of their video content on Facebook; these matches are surfaced on a dashboard. Previously, the rights owner would review these matches in the dashboard to take action. To help make management more efficient for rights owners, we’re now enabling them to automate more of the process, and providing more options for what happens to matched content. This means that the rights owner can decide to set an action to happen automatically when a match of their content is found on Facebook, simplifying the process.

Setting Automated Match Actions

Match actions determine what happens when Rights Manager identifies a match of copyrighted content. Rights Manager now has four automatic match actions:

1. Block: Blocks matched content from being viewable on Facebook upon upload.
2. Claim ad earnings: Allows rights owners to claim a share of the money generated if an Ad Break runs in a piece of content that matches the rights owner’s reference file. We’re still early days with testing Ad Break, but this option may be something rights owners want to use in the future.
3. Monitor: Allows matched content to remain viewable on Facebook, where the rights owner can monitor video metrics. The rights owner can apply a different action at a later time.
4. Manually review match: Sends the match to the Manual Review tab to be reviewed and acted on at a later time.

Match Conditions

Match conditions are the criteria that rights owners can set to determine whether to take an action on a match of their content. If match conditions are met, then the specified match action (above) that the rights holder has set is taken automatically.

With the addition of Privacy type, Rights Manager features five match conditions:

1. Viewer location: The country where a viewer watched the matched video.
2. Content type: The video and/or audio parts of a matched video that overlap with your reference file.
3. Match length: The amount of time a matched video overlaps with your reference file.
4. Publisher type: Choose to match based on whether the content was posted by a Page or a Profile.
5. Privacy type: Choose to match based on whether the video is private (non-public), public, or both.

Using combinations of match actions and conditions, rights owners can use Rights Manager to support their business goals. For example, a rights owner could choose to “Block” all public copies of a matched video in the United States.

These updates will start rolling out today and will be available to Pages using Rights Manager globally in the coming weeks. We hope these updates for Rights Manager will better support our partners’ business objectives. We will continue listening to feedback to improve the product.