Facebook is officially launching its big attack on TV

• Alex Heath and Nathan McAlone

• 17h
• 52,923

Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Facebook's push into becoming a destination for original TV shows begins Thursday with the launch of its redesigned video tab, Business Insider has learned.

The new tab will be called Watch and will showcase a slew of shows from the likes of BuzzFeed, Tastemade, Condé Nast Entertainment, and ATTN, people familiar with the matter said.

Facebook officially confirmed the impending launch of Watch on Wednesday afternoon following the publication of this report. The company didn't specify a date for the launch but said it would happen "soon."

Facebook sees high-quality, scripted video as an important feature to retain users, particularly a younger demographic that is increasingly flocking to its rival Snapchat. It also views such video as a means to rake in brand advertising dollars traditionally reserved for conventional TV.

"We hope Watch will be home to a wide range of shows — from reality to comedy to live sports," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. "Some will be made by professional creators, and others from regular people in our community."

The next phase of video on FacebookCourtesy of Facebook

The new Watch tab will showcase episodic videos that follow a theme or story arc, Facebook said on Wednesday. Users will be able to create a watch list to keep up with new episodes of their favorite shows, which will also be available to watch on Facebook's TV app.

Among the different sections in the tab will be ones for the "most talked about" videos and ones that "friends are watching." Viewers will also be able to see comments from others while watching a show.

Facebook intends to feature a wide gambit of shows through Watch, including live shows that feature hosts responding in real time to users' questions and live events like Major League Baseball games. The company is also hoping to attract more premium, traditional shows, like those you might see on cable or broadcast TV.

Facebook initially hoped to debut its redesigned video tab and show effort earlier this year, but the date has been moved back several times as more show partners have been brought on board.

In typical Facebook fashion, only a small percentage of users will see the new Watch tab in the Facebook app immediately after it launches Thursday. But Facebook plans to slowly make it available to everyone in the coming weeks.

While some shows will be available right away to the small percentage of users with initial access to the Watch tab, roughly 40 shows will be included in the first full slate of programming scheduled to debut for everyone on August 28, people familiar with the matter said.

Facebook has been willing to pay millions of dollars for exclusive rights to premium, longer shows, while less expensive, shorter shows reportedly cost $5,000 to $20,000. The cheaper shows are permitted to be shown outside Facebook after they exclusively debut in the Watch tab.

While a Facebook representative declined to comment on advertising and other financial agreements for Watch, TechCrunch reported that content partners will be able to keep 55% of revenue from midroll video ads.

SEE ALSO: Facebook is going to let publishers start charging readers to view stories

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Venezuela inflation quickens to 248.6 percent in year to July: opposition

• Reuters

• 23h
• 107
 

People buy food and other staple goods inside a supermarket in Caracas Thomson Reuters

CARACAS (Reuters) - Inflation in Venezuela's crisis-hit economy quickened to 248.6 percent in the first seven months of the year, the opposition-led congress said on Wednesday in the absence of official data.

Economic hardship in Venezuela, where there are severe food shortages, is fueling unrest that has led to over 120 deaths in the last four months.

Various factors underlay the seven-month price rise, including a lack of U.S. dollars in the country, a sharp weakening of the bolivar currency, and political uncertainty, opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado said.

He noted that monthly inflation was quickening, with the rise reaching 26 percent in July versus 21.4 percent in June.

President Nicolas Maduro's government has not published official data for more than a year.

Government opponents say Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, have wrecked a once-prosperous economy with 18 years of state-led socialist policies ranging from nationalizations to currency controls.

The government says it is victim of an "economic war" led by opposition-linked businessmen.

(Reporting by Corina Pons; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer)

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2017. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

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'A very significant crisis': Scottish and UK governments fail to reach an agreement on Brexit

• Adam Payne
 

• 7h
• 1,348

First Secretary of State Damian Green. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

• Theresa May's right-hand man Damian Green fails to persuade the Scottish government to approve the Brexit repeal bill.
• Nicola Sturgeon believes UK government will use Brexit to seize control over policy areas that she believes ought to be devolved to Scotland.
• Green will meet with Scottish ministers again in an attempt to reach an agreement.
• Failure to receive Scotland's backing would "deepen what is already a very significant crisis," Scottish Brexit Minister Mike Russell warns.

LONDON — Talks between the Scottish and UK governments have failed to produce an agreement on what powers should be devolved to Scotland after Britain leaves the European Union, according to the BBC.

First Secretary of State Damian Green met with Scotland's Brexit Minister Mike Russell and Deputy First Minister John Swinney on Wednesday to try to reassure them that Theresa May's government won't use Brexit as a means of seizing control of powers that Scottish government wants for Edinburgh.

Nicola Sturgeon's government in Scotland wants full control over fisheries, farming, justice, policing, and environmental law after Brexit. These areas of policy are currently controlled or partly controlled by the EU.

Green described the meeting as "good" and was able to agree on another meeting with the Scottish ministers to discuss Brexit further.

However, Green failed to convince the SNP politicians that UK government is not planning what Sturgeon described as a "naked power grab." As a consequence, the Scottish government still intends to withhold consent for the Brexit repeal bill — formally known as the European Union (withdrawal) Bill. 

Speaking after the meeting, Russell told BBC Scotland: "The Scottish government wants to move forward on this issue with the UK government. We've made it clear we don't believe Brexit is the right thing but we've agreed to work with them and we've tried to do that from the beginning.

"But we can't do it on the basis of undermining the Scottish Parliament, we can't do it on the basis of taking powers away from Scotland.

"But we are willing to listen, and that's why a positive outcome of this was another meeting, proposed by the first secretary [Green] to bring us back together and we hope at that meeting they will come forward with some concrete proposals about issues."

Asked whether the Scottish government still refuses to approve the Bill, the Scottish minister added: "Right now, the recommendation of the Scottish government will make will be to say that we could not approve this bill.

"It's not a veto, and the UK government will be aware of that. But it would deepen what is already a very significant crisis, in my view, if they were to overrule the Scottish Parliament."

What is the Bill? And why are the Scottish and UK governments falling out over it?

The Bill, first published in July, will take all EU law currently affecting Britain and transpose it into domestic law by repealing the European Communities Act (1972). It was first announced at the Conservative Party conference in October and is scheduled to be put to Parliament next month when MPs return from the summer recess.

Sturgeon and Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones in July accused the UK government of making a "naked power grab" with the Bill, and said they could not support it unless May is willing to make some major revisions. They believe that the Conservative government will use the Bill as a means of seizing control of powers that they believe ought to be devolved to the Scottish and Welsh administrations. In a joint statement last month, Sturgeon and Jones said:

"We have repeatedly tried to engage with the UK government on these matters and have put forward constructive proposals about how we can deliver an outcome which will protect the interests of all the nations in the UK, safeguard our economies and respect devolution.

"Regrettably, the Bill does not do this. Instead, it is a naked power grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution and could destabilise our economies."

The UK government has pledged to seek the support of Scotland and Wales before pressing ahead with the Bill via a "legislative consent motion." These motions relate to the convention that devolved administrations must give consent to legislation on matters that they would ordinarily have sovereignty over, under the so-called Sewel Convention.

This is just a convention and has no legal force. The UK Parliament in Westminster has legislative supremacy over all of the devolved administrations. If the Scottish or Welsh administrations refuse to sign any legislative consent motions relating to Brexit, May's Conservative government can simply ignore it and push ahead anyway.

However, any refusal to consent will have political implications that a minority government under a weakened May could struggle to endure. As Catherine Barnard, professor of European law at the University of Cambridge told the Guardian earlier this summer: "The legal position is one thing, and the political position is quite another, particularly with a weakened prime minister."

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