Facebook is exploring new ways to generate money from the videos that appear on the social media platform.
The world’s largest social network will reportedly start testing new “mid-roll” video advertisements—ads that run in the middle of a video—in order to bring in additional ad revenue that Facebook would share with content creators, according a report from Recode citing industry sources. (Meanwhile, on Tuesday, it was reported that Facebook-owned Instagram will start testing similar ads in the platform’s Stories section.)
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But, the report adds that the site plans on giving publishers 55% of the revenue generated by selling the mid-roll video space to advertisers. In other words, if the new video ad model is successful, it would finally give all publishers a consistent ad-based model for making money off of the videos they post on Facebook (FB).
While Facebook has ramped up its video business in recent years—as it tries to compete with rivals like video streaming giant YouTube (GOOG), which also shares 55% of revenue from popular videos with creators—publishers have regularly complained that they were not making enough money from their video content.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has resisted running “pre-roll” video ads that run before a video starts. Meanwhile, some publishers have been able to make money by creating sponsored videos for Facebook, and the site also pays media companies and celebrities money for using its Facebook Live feature.
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Recode notes that Facebook’s mid-roll ad testing will limit the video ads to running only in videos that are at least 90 seconds long, and they will only run after a viewer has watched the video for at least 20 seconds. Those rules would seem designed to benefit publishers that create videos that can hold Facebook users’ attention.