Grabyo, the social video startup, today announced the launch of its professional live-streaming solution at Facebook’s developer conference F8. It revealed its appointment as an official API and live-streaming partner for Facebook Live. Grabyo now provides the fastest and easiest way for media partners to deliver broadcast-quality live streaming, combined with instant highlights of all the best moments, on the world’s largest social platform.

Facebook Live is a significant development for the global media industry, giving content owners and distributors the ability to live broadcast to the social network’s 1.6 billion users. Facebook prioritises live streaming within the News Feed, promoting live video to the vast audience across the platform. Its ability to notify millions of fans when a feed goes live presents a unique opportunity to media publishers, amplified by viral sharing of the stream between users. Already, over 1 billion people log on to Facebook and watch more than 100 millions hours of video daily. Live video is an important development as live content generates 3x longer viewing times and 10x more comments.

Fox live events on Facebook

In advance of F8, Grabyo worked with FOX Sports to distribute live events to Facebook. See an example of a live video shared using Grabyo by FOX Sports below.

Facebook Video API partner at F8

“It is becoming increasingly clear that social video is the new TV. Facebook has an unparalleled ability to find an audience of potentially millions of consumers,” comments Gareth Capon, CEO at Grabyo. “Grabyo provides the fastest and easiest way for TV networks, rights owners and event producers to publish broadcast-quality live streams to Facebook and leverage its extensive global audience.”

Grabyo has a longstanding relationship with Facebook including being announced as a Video API partner at F8 in March 2015 and a Media Solutions Video Partner in October 2015. As an official live streaming partner of Facebook, Grabyo now gives media publishers the ability to stream live broadcasts directly to the social platform. Furthermore, publishers can post instant highlights of all the best moments natively on Facebook and Instagram throughout the live broadcast, driving additional audience and engagement.

The London startup has been at the forefront of social video since the company was founded in 2013 and now works with over 60 premium rights holders across the U.S., Europe and Asia – including FOX Sports, Wimbledon and LaLiga. Grabyo offers a powerful suite of cloud-based video tools including horizontal, vertical and square editing, text and graphic overlays and an integrated mobile application (available on both iOS and Android) for on-the-go content capture, editing, moderation and publishing  of social video content by distributed production teams, editorial staff and celebrities or influencers.

“We will be adding our live streaming capability to our mobile app in due course. Ultimately, Grabyo will offer a complete digital video solution for live media publishers,” continued Gareth Capon, CEO at Grabyo.

For a full overview of Grabyo’s live capabilities with Facebook, click here.