by P.J. Bednarski, Staff Writer @pjbtweet, February 1, 2017

I’ve always heard competition makes sectors grow and makes things better. I don’t know if I agree.

Today, I read that Facebook wants to jump into the content business in a big way, creating an app that would appear on Apple TV. Instead of the bite size pieces of content Facebook now dishes, the new enterprise would make major program acquisitions, probably plotting some live events.

It certainly has the brand name, and a pretty handy platform to market and promote itself.

The “video-first” Facebook app would make it possible to put video content from the social network on to the big screen. While you could do that with short stuff Facebook now puts there, it is looking to advertising opportunities and producing its own television-program like material.

I don’t know.

The OTT world is still new enough that there is no good consumer name for it. As it gets more crowded and expands to new markets, it may be setting a world record for rapid dumbing down. Netflix, for example says that it will unleash 20 reality projects this year alone, including global competition series, “Ultimate Beastmaster,” produced by Sylvester Stallone and “The Biggest Loser” EP Dave Broome.

For Netflix to announce, proudly no less, a big jump into the reality pool is like a Michelin three-star restaurant proudly announcing a special menu packed with artificial ingredients available at a new drive-thru window.

That’s what competition and expansion into the world market does. Per Variety, http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/netflix-ted-sarandos-original-series-scripted-unscripted-1201933645/Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said two exclusive Netflix comedies from Adam Sandler “have been the No. 1 performing titles everywhere in the world.” I rest my case.

The more content source and the bigger the audience, you’d say, the better. It seems to me, that’s not the way it works.

On cable, for example, before there were more and more cable channels, the ones that existed were actually better at doing the things you subscribed to cable to see. Once, the Arts & Entertainment Channel was arty, and so was Bravo. The History Channel did real history. The Learning Channel was aptly named, so much so that when it broadened out to stay competitive, it seemingly became ashamed of itself and went by a new alias, TLC.

There are 1.79 billion Facebook users worldwide. If and when Facebook enters the longer-form content business — and carries advertising — its ability to create stupendous worldwide hits would only be reduced if it did something a too intelligent for the world stage. It would be stupid to be that smart.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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