Facebook will be telecasting original TV shows which MTV executive Mina Lefevre will develop for it. Lefevre, who was entrusted with the task of overseeing all scripted programming at MTV, has now been hired by Facebook to lead its development of scripted and unscripted programming, according to Bloomberg.
Lefevre to assist Ricky Van Veen
Lefevre was hired at MTV in 2015, when her predecessor Susanne Daniels left the company to join YouTube. Lefevre will join the team of Ricky Van Veen, co-founder of CollegeHumor.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Lefevre said, “I have always been drawn to the idea of building something and the idea of being part of the team that helps build Facebook’s original content ecosystem… well, that just seems like a dream!”
Facebook, at present, is the second-largest company in online advertising, and to pull more ad dollars from TV, it is making an effort to get into video. To take further its efforts, the company has been hiring executives, and to get videos produced for its site, it is in talks with talent agents, filmmakers and production companies.
Video is a top priority for Facebook
Over the past year, the social networking giant has made huge investments into original video content and an effort to grow its newly-launched video tab. In December, Veen revealed that the company plans to buy original scripted and unscripted programming as part of the effort.
“Our goal is to kickstart an ecosystem of partner content for the tab, so we’re exploring funding some seed video content, including original and licensed scripted, unscripted, and sports content, that takes advantage of mobile and social interaction unique to Facebook,” Veen said that time.
For several years, the social networking giant has maintained that it was not at all interested in buying content and did not make its plans clear. Even now, it is in the early days of setting up its team and strategy around the effort, notes The Hollywood Reporter.
Video is a big priority for CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and earlier this month, he said during a call with investors that video will be put first across Facebook’s family of apps. The company will begin the initiative by buying short-form content, Zuckerberg clarified. The company will wait to see the performance of the content before taking up traditional-length projects that could put it in direct competition with TV and streaming services like Netflix, the CEO said.
