Facebook's Grand TV Plan Is Crumbling - but With a Twist

By Yohana Desta, Vanity Fair

20 January 20

The social network is reportedly scaling back on original content so it can move toward its pay-per-view destiny.

acebook is scaling back its troops in the Great Streaming War. The social network, which made a push into original content in the last few years in order to compete with streamers like Netflix and Hulu, is walking back its efforts, canceling the drama Sorry for Your Loss and the crime drama Limetown, according to Deadline. The former starred Elizabeth Olsen and earned strong reviews from critics, while the latter starred Jessica Biel and was based on the hit fiction podcast of the same name.

Overall, Deadline reports, Facebook is backing away from the scripted space, focusing its efforts on unscripted content. Which, you know, makes sense for Facebook, which has had success with buzzy talk shows like Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk. Deadline notes that Sorry for Your Loss is being shopped around to other potential buyers.

So, what else will Facebook fill its airtime with now that Sorry for Your Loss and Limetown are no longer on the table? Mixed martial arts, baby. According to Variety, the company has just inked a one-year deal with UFC to produce three original shows for Facebook Watch. The first show is Quick Hits, a livestreaming interview hosted by ESPN reporter Laura Sanko; the second is The Check-In Show, an on-demand series that will focus on athletes or personalities about upcoming events or matchups; the third is Fighter Commentary, which will, you guessed it, feature UFC fighters discussing both previous and upcoming matches.

The content has already begun rolling out, with the inaugural episode of The Check-In Show debuting on Facebook Watch on Thursday, featuring Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone answering fan questions about his upcoming match with Conor McGregor. Per Variety, this is a natural next step for UFC, which made over $1 million in ad revenue last year from Facebook.

UFC is “doing this strategically to drive interest in their tentpole events,” said Devi Mahadevia, Facebook’s director of emerging and digital sports partnerships, in a statement to Variety. “They’re very savvy about using Facebook to build an audience for all of their live events.”

This was probably always going to be the natural next step for Facebook, which just couldn’t get traction with its original scripted shows. Now, we’re mere moments away from Mark Zuckerberg getting, like, really into MMA and pulling a swole Jeff Bezos on the world.