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UPDATE: Dec. 14,Watch The Temptation of Kimono (2009) 2017, 12:28 p.m. EST: This article was updated with confirmation and details from Facebook.

Get ready for more ads on Facebook.

Facebook Watch, the company's initiative for original shows, will include pre-roll video ads — a.k.a. commercials — before the actual video starts, the company announced Thursday. It's all a part of Facebook's big push to become more of a YouTube-like network for video entertainment. AdAge first reported the news earlier this month.

SEE ALSO: Facebook signs Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray for an original video series

Along with the announcing of pre-roll, Facebook revealed it's updating News Feed's ranking and will boost videos that people actively search for and receive repeat viewership. For example, if a Facebook user were to go to Mashable'sFacebook Page and watch What's Your Mutt?every week they would most likely see new episodes in their News Feed.

The change comes less than four months into Facebook Watch rolling out to users. For now, it's good news for Watch partners, like Mashable, who want their shows to be viewed as much as possible. Despite Facebook trying to make Watch a one-stop shop for content like Netflix or television with a tab in app and on desktop, distribution via the social network is still all about the almighty News Feed. Even the company admitted that power in its blog post on Thursday.

"Today, the majority of video discovery and watch time happens in News Feed. News Feed provides a great opportunity for publishers and creators to reach their audience, drive discovery, and start to build deeper connections for their content," reads Facebook's blog post.

The move to add pre-roll ads opposes Facebook's previous strategy and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own words.

"We don't need to do pre-roll because our model is not one where you come to Facebook to watch one piece of content, you come to look at a feed," Zuckerberg said in July during the company's quarterly earnings report, AdAge noted in its original report.

But experimenting with pre-roll isn't surprising. Since the introduction of Watch, Facebook has been trying to become more of a hub for longform video rather than just an endless feed of content to quickly scroll through. Changing user behavior takes time, hence the update to News Feed rankings.

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It's still early days for Watch and understanding what shows do well. For now, Facebook is evaluating the success of Watch shows based on time spent and loyalty rather than just overall unique viewers.

"They're focused on repeat visits, and not just looking for a single video that goes viral and winds up in everyone's feed," an anonymous Facebook Watch partner told AdAge.

And yet, random viral videos remain an important part of Facebook, the company noted in its blog post.

"Engaging one-off videos that bring friends and communities together have always done well in News Feed and will continue to do so," the blog post reads.

Facebook videos still will include mid-roll ads, as well. Facebook Watch videos have been running with mid-roll ads similar to commercials on television. Pre-roll is common on YouTube, one of Facebook's rivals in high-quality video.

Of course, all of this strategy could change in the future. As Digiday'sSahil Patel reported earlier this week, Facebook is no longer paying publishers to make a set amount of on-demand and live videos directly for News Feed. Sources told Digidaythe company was not renewing those deals with an estimated 300 publishers and other creators.

Finally, some publishers are pushing back against Facebook and heavily relying on that strategy for their distribution and as a revenue source.

"If they came back to us six months from now and offered to pay for another type of program, I’m not sure we’d go back because none of it has worked," an exec at a top publisher told Digiday.

BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti called out Facebook for offering unreliable business models for publisher earlier this week.

“Google and Facebook are taking the vast majority of ad revenue, and paying content creators far too little for the value they deliver to users," Peretti wrote onBuzzFeed.

Now, publishers' eyes are on Watch.

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