Facebook is (finally) preparing to make money off its huge video audience

Facebook is (finally) preparing to make money off its huge video audience

Facebook is about to turn up the volume on its video competition with YouTube.

Videos on the social network can soon include mid-roll advertisements, allowing publishers to finally start making money from their videos, Recode reported Monday.

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Unlike YouTube where ads run prior to the video and can be skippable after 5 seconds, ads within Facebook videos can be inserted 20 seconds into any video that lasts at least 90 seconds.

The move to ad breaks comes as little surprise to publishers. This mid-roll ad system is the same format Facebook has tested with live videos. "We've found that model is working well, and we plan to expand this test to make it available to more partners," Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email to Mashable.

Facebook's VP of Partnerships Dan Rose told Poynter last year the company had plans to incorporate into more live videos and within published videos early in 2017.

Facebook was not sharing any revenue from the ads with participating publishers during the initial testing with live. Now, Facebook will give away 55 percent and keep 45 percent, according to Recode. YouTube offers the exact same split.

Facebook declined to comment on the specific parameters.

This is not the only way publishers can earn money from Facebook videos. Facebook pays select partners, including Mashable, to create live videos. Publishers can also create branded content, as long as the brand is tagged with the Facebook post.

"We need to provide a range of solutions for the broad range of publishers and partners on our platform," the spokesperson wrote.