SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc took a first step on Tuesday toward selling video ads that play automatically in newsfeeds, moving cautiously to unlock a source of revenue that could annoy users.
The world’s largest social network, which had long been expected to try and grab a larger slice of the $66 billion U.S. television advertising market, will start by working with Summit Entertainment on ads for “Divergent,” based on the popular series of science-fiction books.
Facebook will run video ads for Divergent on Thursday in a one-day test. The video spot, which will only be viewable by certain groups in the United States, will begin playing with the sound muted when it appears in a user’s newsfeed. Facebook users can turn on the sound by clicking on the ad, similar to the non-paid auto-play videos Facebook introduced in September.
Facebook said video will improve the quality of the ads on its service.
Read also:
Facebook plans to roll video advertising (USA TODAY)
How to Block Facebook's Annoying New Autoplay Video Ads (TIME)
Updated: Facebook To Try Out Video Ads This Week (Forbes)
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