Everywhere you turn, it seems as though celebrities and other public figures are jumping on the livestreaming bandwagon. These people are flocking to platforms like Facebook and Snapchat in an effort to reach out to their fans and ultimately, build their brands.
Which platform they elect to spend most of their time on, however, has little to do with its potential reach, popularity or ease of use.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, it’s all about the Benjamins – cash. The publication recently reviewed a document from Facebook that outlined the spending of more than $50 million to celebrities and publishing partners in exchange for their use of Facebook Live, the social network’s live video streaming service.
The Journal cited a number of celebs involved in contract deals including Kevin Hart, Gordon Ramsay, Deepak Chopra and NFL quarterback Russell Wilson as well as publishers like Tastemade, Mashable, the Huffington Post and Vox Media.
How much each entity is being paid varies greatly. The highest-paid publisher, for example, is BuzzFeed which will receive $3.05 million for broadcasting content between March 2016 and March 2017. The New York Times is also high on the list with $3.03 million for a 12-month deal followed by CNN’s $2.5 million contract.
Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s vice president of global operations and media partnerships, said they wanted to invite a broad set of partners to get feedback from a variety of different organizations about what works and what doesn’t. Osofsky added that they invited publishers partially based on their track record with live video.
Image courtesy Omar Vega, Associated Press
