Facebook is partnering with NFL to offer the very first video adverts, brought to viewers by Verizon. The 10 second advertisement will play after the 30-second NFL clip, a change from the usual advert at the start of the video.

The social network has seen large growth in videos over the past few months, ever since the implementation of auto-play videos. Various Vine contributors are now adding videos on Facebook, using the service for longer videos as well.

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The NFL partnership is the first of many, as Facebook starts to test video ads in the U.S. Facebook is reportedly testing video ads on various Pages, and will actively look for partnerships with big media channels.

Facebook will split the ad-revenue between the company and the content creator, similar to YouTube. The ad-split should provide incentive for video creators to start working primarily on Facebook, if they have a large audience.

In order to draw in more conventional video creators, Facebook has reportedly been offering YouTube channels unique partnerships, to launch videos early on Facebook. Vessel, a new video service by ex-Hulu executives, is also trying to poach YouTube talent.

If Facebook is looking to fight YouTube on the video front, it will be a hard task, especially considering YouTube's decade long dominance in the video field.

Netflix has made large inroads, but Facebook and YouTube videos are much different from Netflix; primarily offering TV shows and movies. Facebook has a strong audience on mobile, grabbing over 10 percent of the peak internet traffic on mobile.

Facebook has also redesigned Pages to make it more video friendly, allowing viewers to check all past updates and view video collections. The current YouTube system offers an excellent profile to check collections of videos, alongside recent uploads.

Video ads are naturally much more valuable than text ads, especially if the user is watching it for the full 10-seconds. It is not clear if Facebook will offer variables to the length of the advertisement, and a spokesperson speaking to The Wall Street Journal said it is only "a small video sponsorship test."

Tagsvideo ads, verizon, NFL, YouTube