Facebook wants to bankroll its own original shows

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Facebook's Ricky Van Veen is leading the company's efforts to fund original video content.

Facebook wants to bankroll its own original video shows, the company's global creative strategy chief, Ricky Van Veen, told Business Insider on Wednesday.

The videos Facebook wants to license will live in the new video tab of its mobile app and including "scripted, unscripted, and sports content," according to Van Veen.

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Recode's Peter Kafka first reported the news.

Funding original shows on Facebook is a similar approach to how the company has paid celebrities and media outlets (Business Insider included) to broadcast live video. It's also similar to the strategy Snapchat has taken with its Discover section, which shows original content from media partners like BuzzFeed and Vice.

"Earlier this year, we started rolling out the Video tab, a dedicated place for video on Facebook," Van Veen said in a statement. "Our goal is to kickstart an ecosystem of partner content for the tab, so we're exploring funding some seed video content, including original and licensed scripted, unscripted, and sports content, that takes advantage of mobile and the social interaction unique to Facebook. Our goal is to show people what is possible on the platform and learn as we continue to work with video partners around the world."

Van Veen joined Facebook earlier this year from CollegeHumor, which he cofounded.

Paying for videos isn't the only way Facebook is trying to get more original content in peoples' feeds. Business Insider recently reported that Facebook is working on a new feature called Collections that will showcase lists of exclusive content from favored publishers directly in the News Feed.

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