Trump campaign launches its own nightly news show on Facebook Live

Donald Trump's campaign has launched a nightly campaign coverage programme that will be streamed exclusively on Facebook Live and broadcast until Election Day. Making its debut on Monday (24 October), the video programme will run on the Republican presidential nominee's Facebook campaign page weeknights at 6:30 pm ET, the Trump campaign announced on its Facebook page.

Hosted by Trump campaign advisers Boris Epshteyn and Cliff Sims as well as conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, the programme will be broadcast from what they described as the "war room" inside the campaign headquarters at Trump Tower in New York. The programme will stream the candidate's rallies with pre- and post-event commentaries.

The first episode included interviews with Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and adviser Jason Miller, averaging 40,000 to 60,000 viewers on the social media platform in the first hour, CNN reports.

The series comes amid mounting speculation that Trump is considering launching his own media channel after the election if he loses to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Last week, the Financial Times reported that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, recently contacted LionTree's founder and chief executive Aryeh Bourkoff to discuss launching "Trump TV".

"We all know how strong the left wing media bias is," Epshteyn told The Wired. "This is us delivering our message to voters. It has nothing to do with Trump TV. It's about using 21st century technology and communication in a way that's effective."

Trump has not shied away from voicing his disdain for the mainstream media throughout the campaign trail, often accusing outlets of unilateral bias against him.

At a rally in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Monday, Trump accused the media of intentionally misleading voters by releasing "phony" polls in order to suppress Trump's supporters.

"These thieves and crooks, they're disgraceful," Trump told a crowd of around 8,000 people. "Without the dishonest and deceit of the media, Hillary Clinton would be nothing."

"The media isn't just against me. They're against all of you. "They're against what we represent... I will never let you be the forgotten people again."

While adamantly maintaining that Facebook is not a news organisation, the social media giant has continued to ramp up efforts to promote its new live-streaming platform. In January, the company reported that users watch an estimated 100 million hours of video in their news feed every day.

Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's VP for EMEA, recently predicted that the platform could soon become "all video" within five years. She also noted that "engagement is much higher" for live videos as opposed to pre-recorded ones.