Facebook Adds New Broadcasting Features

By Karen Fratti 

FacebookTVIt’s not just McDonald’s big launch day. Facebook released new tools for broadcasters and content creators, too, so you can be ever more beholden to the social network.

They’ve parterned with Telescope to curate user photos and videos and with Whipclip and Grabyo to let shows share clips. The video submission comes on the heels of the GOP debates, where Fox hosts solicited video questions and over 40,000 were sent in.

The new features also include native polling on a show page:

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  • People can vote on the poll directly from Feed, making it extremely easy to engage an audience and receive aggregate results on any given topic.
  • After voting, people are shown an animated display of the results. These Polls can be pinned to the top of a Page for easy discovery in conjunction with a broadcast call-to-action (e.g., ‘Go to Facebook-slash-XYZ to vote now!).
  • Native Polling also comes with a real-time API for instant retrieval of vote data and in-broadcast visualizations.

In line with the polling, they’ve also launched hashtag voting:

  • Today we’re announcing the Hashtag Voting API, a new broadcast voting resource for Facebook. This API connects to certified 3rd party providers for contest and award shows to allow for voting via hashtag in Facebook posts or comments in near real-time during a broadcast. This means producers can leverage Facebook to power in-broadcast votes like “instant saves” of contestants.
  • Telescope, the leading broadcast audience engagement platform, is the first company to adopt this API and deliver the first such voting solutions on Facebook. Telescope powers the vast majority of global TV contest show votes along with a number of additional innovative fan experiences.

They’ve also added new video gallery improvements and custom icons for big events like the Oscars or sports playoffs.

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