Do
you
remember
Facebook
Watch?
Me
neither.
Mark
Zuckerberg’s
short-lived
streaming
service
never
really
got
off
the
ground,
but
court
filings
unsealed
in
Meta’s
antitrust
lawsuit
claim
“Watch”
was
kneecapped
starting
in
2018
to
protect
Zuckerberg’s
advertising
relationship
with
Netflix
CEO
Reed
Hastings.
“For nearly a decade, Netflix and Facebook enjoyed a special relationship,” said plaintiffs in filings made public on Saturday. “It is no great mystery how this close partnership developed, and who was its steward: from 2011-2019, Netflix’s then-CEO Hastings sat on Facebook’s board and personally directed the companies’ relationship…”
The filings detail Hastings’ uncomfortably close relationship with Meta’s upper management, including Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. During these years, Netflix was allegedly granted special access to Facebook users’ private message inboxes, among other privileged analytics tools, in exchange for hundred-million-dollar advertising deals. This gave Facebook greater dominance in its all-important ad division, plaintiffs allege, so the company was fine to retreat from Netflix’s streaming territory by shuttering Watch.
In
2017,
Facebook
Watch
began
signing
deals
to
populate
its
streaming
service
with
original
TV
Shows
from
movie
stars
such
as
Bill
Murray.
A
year
later,
the
service
attempted
to
license
the
popular
‘90s
TV
show
Dawson’s
Creek.
Facebook
Watch
had
meaningful
reach
on
the
home
screen
of
the
social
media
platform,
and
an
impressive
budget
as
well.
Facebook
and
Netflix
appeared
ready
to
butt
heads
in
the
streaming
world,
and
the
Netflix
cofounder
found
himself
in
the
middle
as
a
Facebook
board
member.
“There’s
not
a
big
conflict
yet,”
Hastings
said
onstage
at
the
2017
Recode
conference
when
asked
about
Facebook
Watch.
“We’re
not
bidding
on
the
same
shows,”
he
said,
though
Hastings
later
regretted
these
words
in
an
email.
“Let
me
know
if
you
think
there
was
a
better
way
to
handle,”
Hastings
wrote
in
an
email
to
Zuckerberg
unsealed
in
this
case.
“In
hindsight,
I
wish
I
added
a
materiality
qualifier
like
‘not
generally
bidding
on
the
same
content.’”
These unsealed court filings stem from a class action antitrust case against Meta, first spotted on X by Jason Kint. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of consumers and advertisers, alleges Meta is a monopoly in the social media market.
Netflix was a large advertiser to Facebook, and plaintiffs allege Zuckerberg shuttered its promising Watch platform for the sake of the greater advertising business. Zuckerberg personally emailed the head of Facebook Watch in May of 2018, Fidji Simo, to tell her their budget was being slashed by $750 million, just two years after Watch’s launch, according to court filings. The sudden pivot meant Facebook was now dismantling the streaming business it had spent the last two years growing.
During
this
time
period,
Netflix
increased
its
ad
spend
on
Facebook
to
roughly
$150
million
a
year
and
allegedly
entered
into
agreements
for
increased
data
analytics.
By
early
2019,
the
ad
spend
increased
to
roughly
$200
million
a
year.
Hastings
left
Facebook’s
board
later
in
2019.
Meta
said
its
agreements
and
relationships
with
Netflix
are
commonplace
in
a
statement
to
Gizmodo.
However,
the
spokesperson
did
not
answer
our
questions
about
whether
competition
with
Netflix
was
a
reason
for
Facebook
Watch
being
shuttered.
“We
are
confident
the
facts
will
show
this
complaint
is
meritless,”
said
a
Meta
spokesperson.
It’s
entirely
possible
that
Facebook
Watch
was
shuttered
for
other
reasons,
though
Netflix
is
certainly
an
important
partner
to
Meta.
Tech
companies
shutter
projects
for
all
kinds
of
reasons.
However,
Hastings
found
himself
squarely
in
the
middle
of
this
conflict,
as
a
Facebook
board
member
and
CEO
of
Netflix,
and
it
seems
Watch
was
never
really
given
a
chance
to
shine.
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