Facebook is positioning its Watch platform as a direct competitor to YouTube.
Recent changes. Facebook now requires Watch videos be longer than 3 minutes to qualify for mid-stream ads. Those ads can appear only after 60 seconds of the video has played.
The previous standard was 90 seconds to qualify and, an ad could appear as soon as 20 seconds into the video.
YouTube and Facebook are the dominant social platforms for video consumption.
More. How Amazon’s Ad Business Could Threaten Google and Facebook