SBS launches comedy series on Facebook

Australian pubcaster SBS has launched the first episode of its new comedy series The Family Law on Facebook.

The linear debut of the comedy series follows next Thursday.

The series opener was put on Facebook yesterday and will remain on the social media platform until midnight Sunday.

The linear series, meanwhile, will go out in a weekly 8.30pm slot.

It is based on the Benjamin Law book of the same name and produced by Matchbox Pictures, the NBCUniversal-backed Australian prodco.

The series follows a Chinese-Australian family over the course of one long, hot summer, with the action seen through the eyes of the youngest sibling, 14 year-old Benjamin.

NBCUniversal will sell the series and format internationally.

Facebook is recognised as a platform on which to talk about TV, and to watch some shortform video, but full-episode releases are unusual.

US cable net Starz is one of the few others that have experimented with longform comedy on the platform, launching a season opener of LeBron James-inspired basketball comedy Survivor’s Remorse on the service. That episode was not geo-blocked and could be seen worldwide, whereas SBS’s The Family Law can only be seen in Australia.