WSJ: Facebook's autoplaying video ads launch this week

After months of rumors, the Wall Street Journal claims Facebook will finally include video ads in user's feeds on the web and mobile devices later this week -- a move we figured would happen soon now that it's splashed other autoplaying videos all over the place. Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Journal claims Facebook will announce the change later today, with the first ads rolling out on Thursday. Previous rumors have put the run time for ads at 15 seconds or so -- a fit for Instagram video -- and this rumor even says movie studio Lions Gate will be among the first using it, pushing mini trailers for its upcoming movie Divergent.

So, why is Facebook reportedly tossing in one more thing for you to quickly scroll past? Because it can charge advertisers much more for video ads, which will play whether or not users click on them (like user videos, they're silent unless clicked), letting it grab some of the money usually marked for TV campaigns. Previous rumors claimed the hold up in bringing video ads to the social network is because they loaded too slowly, so it would appear that hurdle has been cleared -- we'll see if load times are enough to keep users from running to other services once their feed looks like a sponsored version of Vine.