Facebook Moving Into Video Advertisements

May threaten TV ad revenue

Television has been the last stand of traditional media, but the time has come for it to defend its turf. After flirting with video advertising for much of the year, Facebook (FB) said Tuesday that it will begin to put promoted videos into its news feed.

Facebook users will roll their eyes and post status updates about being annoyed. But success for the video ads could genuinely threaten television companies. The markets for advertising in other types of traditional media have been decimated by the Internet, as the graph below shows. But while television ad sales dipped when the recession hit, they soon recovered and have continued to climb.