More advertisements are reportedly headed to Facebook.
Recode, citing unnamed "industry sources," on Monday reported that Facebook will soon begin showing ads inside videos, a la YouTube. Publishers will be able to add these new "mid-roll" ads into their videos and rake in some cash for their content. The ads will start to play around the 20-second mark, and only show up inside videos that are at least 90 seconds long.
The report notes that Facebook will sell the ads, and 55 percent of the revenue will go to publishers. For those keeping track, YouTube offers publishers the same deal.
A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
Facebook last year started letting certain publishers insert ad breaks into their Live videos; now it's expanding those mid-roll ads to "all kinds of videos," including those that show up in your News Feed, Recode said. This is a pretty big change for Facebook, which has, until now, shied away from traditional video advertising, including "pre-roll" ads that run before a video starts.
Facebook's move to expand video advertising shouldn't come as too much of a shock: the company's VP of Partnerships Dan Ros in September said this would be happening.
"Next year, we're going to be looking at ways to apply the ad break model to regular videos on Facebook, videos that are not live," he told Poynter, Recode pointed out. "Over the next few months, we're going to be expanding the ad break within live videos. But early next year, we hope to be able to talk more about how that same idea could apply to regular videos as well."
Meanwhile, Facebook also last April started allowing "branded content," a move that coincided with the rise of those Buzzfeed Tasty videos you've surely seen.