Facebook to sell TV-style commercial spots for $2.5 million

Facebook may soon be offering marketers the option to buy 15-second video spots that would play in users' News Feeds, possibly later this year.

The social network is looking for new ways to get advertising dollars, and the commercial spots would sell for $1 million to $2.5 million per day, depending on the audience size.

Facebook is reportedly pitching the ad time as an alternative to primetime television spots, which generally start at about 15 seconds.

The commercials will reportedly be sold by the day, and can only be targeted to users based on age and gender. Users will reportedly see no more than three video ads in their Facebook News Feeds per day.

"88 million to 100 million people are actively using Facebook during prime-time TV hours in the United States alone,” said COO Sheryl Sandberg while discussing second-quarter results last week.

TV ratings measurement firm Nielsen has been working with Facebook for the last three years to develop methods for measuring Facebook's online viewership.