Tag: Livestreaming

YouTube Adds Support For 360-Degree Live Streaming

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
YouTube reportedly started testing 360-degree live streaming on its platform in February, and today the online video giant is officially rolling out this feature. Select performances from this year’s Coachella festival will be one of first content to be live-streamed in 360 degrees. In addition, the Google-owned company is also opening up its “Live API,” allowing any camera manufacturer to integrate the capability of sending live-streams to YouTube to their products. Moreover, YouTube also added support for spatial audio for on-demand (recorded) videos to make the viewing experience more immersive.

Previously, YouTube worked with GoPro to create The GoPro Odyssey, a camera rig that allows for real-time stitching of 360-degree videos. The action camera maker is also building out its VR ecosystem as it launches a new VR content channel and a new tool for live-streaming high-quality 360-degree videos today.

What Brands Need To Do
By combining the immediacy of live-streaming and the immersion of 360-degree content, YouTube is providing brands with a great tool to amplify the reach of their sponsored events and engage with the massive number of YouTube users in real time. As virtual reality and live-streaming platforms and content creation tools continue to mature, brands should work closely with content creators to develop such content so as to connect with their audiences in innovative, exciting ways.

 

Source: TechCrunch and Engadget

 

AOL Offers A Brand-Friendly Live-Streaming Platform

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
AOL acquired photo-editing app Kanvas last August and pivoted it to a live-streaming platform two months later. The live-streaming platform offers brand-friendly features such as animated, branded GIFs, branded filters, and branded live streams. Last December, clothing brand Guess became the first brand to use Kanvas to live-stream a sponsored event to promote its #GuessAllAccess campaign. Kanvas currently boasts around 3.5 million registered users and plans to attract more by expanding its in-house live coverage of popular events and music festivals.

What Brands Need To Do
With Facebook launching the Live API to allow live broadcasting from any device, live-streaming is set to hit full swing as publishers and content creators rush to Facebook and Twitter’s Periscope to try it out. Besides those two leading live-streaming platforms, however, brands should be aware of the other options available such as Kanvas and YouNow. Despite their relatively smaller audience sizes, these platforms seem to be more willing to collaborate with brands and offer customizable support for branded live-streams that is currently absent from Facebook Live and Periscope.

 

Source: DIgiday

Live-Streaming Video Starts To Explode

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
As Facebook makes a strong push for media owners to use its Live Video feature to broadcast on its platform, live-streaming is quickly moving up on the priority lists of publishers and content creators. Last Friday, BuzzFeed scored almost three million viewers on Facebook with its live-stream of a simplistic-yet-captivating experiment of putting rubber bands on a watermelon until it burst from the tightening force. The end result was a glorious watermelon explosion as well as a victory for Buzzfeed as the live stream attracted 808,000 concurrent viewers at its peak and 2.8 million viewers overall.  

In related news, Al Roker, famed TV personality and host of NBC’s Today, has launched a digital video network that produces content for live-streaming platforms, including Facebook, Twitter’s Periscope, YouTube, and YouNow. Roker is no stranger to live-streaming as he hosted a live cooking series on Meerkat last year.

What Brands Need To Do
As an emerging medium, live-streaming has been gaining momentum recently and increasingly drawing mainstream audiences. Last week, Periscope hit a milestone of 200 million live broadcasts since its launch one year ago. Facebook’s Live Video feature officially rolled out to all users in early February. Some early-adopting brands such as GE and Calvin Klein have followed the eyeballs and started live-streaming on those platforms. For brands seeking to engage with online audiences in real time, Buzzfeed’s fun experiment provides a good example in how brands can use simple, creative premises to devise compelling, suspenseful content that captures consumer attention.

Check back later this week for our coverage of Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference, where Live Video will most likely be one of the products that Facebook highlights.

 

Source: The Verge and Variety

Header image courtesy of  BuzzFeed’s Facebook Video

Facebook Accelerates Live Video Push With New Features

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook continues to build out Live Video as it adds a variety of new features to its live-streaming product today and boosts their positioning in the News Feed. Users will now be able to discover public live-streams via a dedicated Live Video tab on their mobile app, taking the prominent spot where Messenger used to be. Other new features include live Reactions, filters, and the ability to post live videos to private groups, allowing for more interactions and customizations on the live-streams. In order to attract more content creators to its live-streaming platform, Facebook is reportedly paying publishers to post a certain number of live videos each month.

What Brands Need To Do
Even though Facebook’s Live Video does not currently carry ads, some early adopting brands, such as GE, are already using it to broadcast sponsored events or branded content. The new additions of customization and discovery features should help attract more users and content creators to Live Video, giving Facebook a considerable boost over other live-streaming platforms such as YouNow and Twitter’s Periscope. For brands wishing to connect with audiences in real time, it is time to try Facebook’s Live Video.

To read more on how brands can reach the fragmented audiences on streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Facebook Newsroom

Header image courtesy of Facebook Newsroom

Twitter Won Rights To Live-Stream Ten NFL Games

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Twitter has won digital simulcast rights for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package for 2016, which includes the ten NFL games that will be broadcasted by NBC and CBS as well as pre-game warmup broadcasts on Periscope. Twitter will be live-streaming the games globally for free without requiring sign-in, and reportedly will be selling one-third of the ad inventory itself.

The news came after month-long rumors of front-running bidders for the NFL live-streaming rights, which included Verizon, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook. This deal marks a continuation of Twitter’s ongoing partnership with the NFL, which started in 2013 when the social network struck a deal to publish game highlights and video clips.

What Brands Need To Do
With consumers increasingly migrating from consuming media content on TV sets to streaming on their mobile devices, it makes sense that media owners and brand advertisers are following the eyeballs. Live sports events are one of the last bastions against the ratings erosion that the TV networks have suffered from in recent years. As this and Yahoo’s similar deal with the MLB indicate, live sports viewing may soon shift toward digital and consequently eat into TV ratings. For brands, this means it is time to consider reallocating their ad spending between digital and TV. Brands with an international presence can also leverage Twitter’s global reach to get in front of a wider audience.  

To read more on how brands can reach the audiences on OTT streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Bloomberg

Google Reportedly Working On A Periscope Competitor

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is reportedly working on a live-streaming app called YouTube Connect, as the company aims to catch up with competitors’ live-streaming products such as Facebook’s Live Video and Twitter’s Periscope. Currently, YouTube users can only start a live broadcast via the Creator Studio, which is not accessible for most users. Therefore, developing a standalone app should get more users to try out live-streaming and give YouTube a boost in live content.

What Brands Need To Do
Following Facebook’s official launch of Live Video at the end of January, live-streaming has been garnering media attention. Recent research from Brandlive shows that 44% of companies created live video content in 2015. Now, with Google getting on board, brands will gain a great new channel that they can use to reach targeted audiences with sponsorships and branded content.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Yahoo Dives Deeper Into Live-Streaming With NHL Partnership

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Yahoo continues its push into live sports streaming as it inks a new partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL) to deliver live, out-of-market games for free. Starting today, hockey fans will be able to stream the NHL “Game of the Day” up to four days per week on Yahoo’s website. Yahoo will also provide additional content, “Best of the Day” and “Best of the Week,” to highlight top plays and postgame happenings during each of these games. The deal will last throughout the 2016-17 NHL regular season.

Market Impact
Yahoo’s bid for live-streaming sports started last fall, when it successfully drew 15.2 million total viewers with an exclusively live-streamed NFL game. With this new partnership, Yahoo is making NHL content more accessible, as it continues to chase the coveted millennial market whose viewing habits are increasingly transitioning to time-shifted viewing on Appified TV (to read more on this, check out our Outlook 2016 here). For NHL sponsors and brands advertising in NHL games, this deal should come as good news as they gain a digital channel that will help them reach online viewers.

 

Source: Variety

Here Comes Nom, The Twitch For Food Shows

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Live-streaming platforms continue to diversify as Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, launched Nom, a livestreaming site for food shows. Similar to the way Twitch has enabled video gamers to broadcast themselves, Nom is aiming to provide a platform for anyone who loves to cook to showcase their culinary skills via live broadcasts and connect with others in the food community.

What Brands Need To Do
Following Facebook’s official launch of Live Video at the end of January, live-streaming has been in the media spotlight and getting brands interested in trying out this emerging medium. In fact, a recent research from Brandlive found that 44% of companies have created live video content in 2015. With the launch of Nom, QSRs, cooking equipment makers, and other food-related brands gain a great new channel that they can reach targeted audience with sponsorships and branded content.

To read more on how brands can reach viewers on OTT streaming platforms with branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: VentureBeat

MLB To Amplify Spring Training With Snapchat and Facebook’s Live Video

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The Major League Baseball (MLB) is embracing emerging media platforms to amplify the reach of its content. The league announced Friday that as part of a multi-year content deal with popular messaging app Snapchat, it will host a “Snapchat Day” later this month for its Spring Training games around the country, giving fans behind-the-scenes looks. Similarly, some teams, including the San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, and Los Angeles Dodgers, are also experimenting with daily live broadcasts on Facebook to engage fans and drum up excitement using the Live Video feature Facebook just released for all users at the end of January.

What Brands Need To Do
The MLB is a leading force in bringing content into new media platforms to make it more accessible. Its internet and interactive branch, MLB Advanced Media, provides the backend infrastructure for a variety of OTT streaming services, including HBO Now, the WWE, WatchESPN, CBS Sportsline, and, of course, its own streaming service MLB.TV.  Now, the league is encouraging its players to embrace Snapchat and livestreaming as a way to bring fans closer to the game, something that most brands can learn a thing or two from.

 

Sources: Geekwire & Digiday

Facebook Tweaks News Feed To Prioritize Live Videos

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s remark last week about “planning to make livestreaming a priority at Facebook,” the company has started its push for the new Live Video feature, which enables users to broadcast themselves to their friends right from the Facebook app, in real time. The social network has tweaked its News Feed ranking algorithm to give Live Video posts a higher spot in the News Feed so that more people will see those livestreams. In addition, Facebook is reportedly offering celebrities up to six figures to use Live Video, as it looks to leverage star power to drum up interest in its Periscope competitor.

What Brands Need To Do
Facebook’s push for Live Video dovetails nicely with the company’s recent efforts in building out its video products and vying for video ad dollars. For brands, this presents a new channel to reach a mobile audience in real time with branded livestreams or sponsored live events. As livestreaming continues to evolve as an emerging media platform, we expect to see more brand opportunities and content formats arise.

 

Sources: Digiday & Re/Code