Facebook Study: We're Bigger Than Prime-Time TV

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BY LAUREN INDVIK 2 DAYS AGO

Facebook wants a slice of the video advertising market — and not just the online video ad market, but TV, too.

Facebook is reportedly preparing for the launch of a video advertising programthis fall, which would bring :15 second ads to the news feeds of hundreds of millions of users.

Now, the company is trying to drum up advertiser interest. During Facebook's second quarter earnings call last week, COO Sheryl Sandberg happened to mention that 88 million to 100 million residents of the United States use Facebook during prime-time TV hours. Those figures were reinforced in a Facebook-sponsored Nielsen study released Wednesday, which found that among the 25-to-34-year-old demographic, Facebook has a daytime reach "comparable to or exceeding" the four major networks used in the study. (Let's assume those networks are ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.)

Facebook's entry into the video space means that "marketers now have another option [besides TV] for reaching consumers en masse," Nielsen reported.

Before TV networks get too upset, Nielsen was quick to point out that many synergistic opportunities exist between Facebook and TV networks because so many consumers access both on a daily basis. In the 25-to-34-year-old demographic, for example, Facebook and individual TV networks had about a 16% overlap. During primetime, that percentage was even higher, about 34% on average.

In that case, Facebook could pursue a strategy similar to Twitter's, which has quite effectively won over the major TV networks in the U.S. and UK. Twitter recently rolled out an ad product called Twitter Amplify, which lets national TV advertisers retarget their ads to Twitter users — something Twitter couldn't have pulled off without the networks' help. Facebook is showing that TV viewers aren't just using Twitter while they're watching TV; they're using Facebook, too.

So what can we expect from Facebook? Beyond the general :15 video spots, I wouldn't be surprised to see opportunities for TV advertisers to retarget their ads on Facebook, especially during primetime hours and major viewing events like the Emmys and the Super Bowl.

The question is whether Facebook will win the endorsement of the TV industry, like Twitter — or whether the networks will feel threatened by Facebook's scale. But perhaps Facebook won't need their endorsement after all.