ABC on Monday launched what it claims is the “first ever daily newscast for social media,” offering Facebook users a quick way to catch up on the news of the day.
Facecast: The One Thing runs for around 60 seconds and is presented by World News Tonight’s David Muir – presumably he knocks it out while getting read for his main gig.
The new show will appear every weekday and plans to feature “a mix of the essential stories on everything from breaking news and the economy to sports and politics, featuring video, photographs and infographics,” the network said in a release.
The debut post has Muir rattling through no less than five stories. Speaking a little faster than he does on his main show in order to squeeze everything in, the anchor leads with the St. Louis Rams players’ ‘hands up’ pose before moving on to a terror-related piece.
He finishes up with something about the new trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII and a brief word on the ‘whooshing’ sound made by Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. On several occasions Muir subtly weaved Facebook into the reports in a bid to make them more relevant to users of the social networking service.
ABC’s World News Tonight, which currently has an audience of nearly 10 million, clearly feels it can benefit by expanding its presence on Facebook with the addition of a video show aimed at the service’s 1.35 billion users.
Facebook, too, is pleased with the new partnership with the high-profile media outlet as it seeks to bring more video to its platform.
“Video on Facebook is growing fast and it’s exciting to see ABC and David Muir create unique content for this platform,” Andy Mitchell, Facebook’s director of global media partnerships, said Monday, adding, “A newscast….is a great way to leverage Facebook’s platform and engage people in the journalism ABC News is known for.”
You can catch the new show on World News Tonight’s Facebook page here.
[Source: ABC]
