Facebook, Netflix in Talks for Partnership

NEW YORK - Facebook has been in talks with Netflix and others about integrating video and other content into the social networking site, the New York Times reported Friday.

In a presentation at the eG8 technology conference in France this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned Netflix, whose CEO is Reed Hastings, as one of the companies his team has held discussions with.

The talks are part of a broader plan by Facebook to develop features that will allow users to share their favorite TV shows, news, music and other media. Playing social games and sharing photos are already popular activities on the social networking site.

Facebook would not license content itself, but use the content licensed by its partners. Citing people involved in the negotiations, the Times said Facebook’s media partners would have a part in a continuous feed that would display the songs, videos and other media that a user is consuming.

The company is, for example, in discussions with several online music services, such as Spotify, to develop a feature that would display a user’s most-played songs and let friends hear them, the Times said.

“Listening to music is something that people do with their friends,” Zuckerberg said in France, according to the Times. “Music, TV, news, books - those types of things I think people just naturally do with their friends. I hope we can play a part in enabling those new companies to get built and companies that are out there producing this great content to become more social.”

Facebook did not comment on its plans further, the Times said.

In a statement, the company only said: “We’re always looking for better ways to help people discover the most relevant content on Facebook, but have nothing to announce.”

Last year, Facebook was in discussions with Apple about adding social features to iTunes, but the talks broke down.