To Live Stream or To Pre-Record?

That is the question.

Not really.

During my sixteen years in the field of continuing professional education, a question has frequently arisen as to the benefits of live-streaming an event over relying on a video recording of the same content.

When is it better to live stream?

Never.

OK, well, almost never.

• If your content changes fairly regularly (like, weekly);
• If you’re presenting very targeted material to a very specific audience, say, to one single firm, and require the flexibility to adjust the course content while the course is taking place;
• If the content is so niche that only one person on Earth can serve as the information source and the audience question answerer, and that person is only available on one day;
• The effective delivery of your content depends on tons of back-and-forth discussion between audience members.

Other than the circumstances cited above, I have never encountered any meaningful evidence that a customer, when presented with a choice between a live stream and a pre-recorded version of the same content, will pay more for the former.  From the aggregate customer’s perspective, there is no perceived value in a live-streamed continuing education event. 

Keep in mind that I am only comparing live-streamed online education here and not face-to-face live courses.  Until Covid, there were very solid lines between the customers tuning in from their desks and those driving to the downtown Marriott for their eight-hour A&A updates.  The folks who have relied on webcasts from the beginning are a different target that responds to (ie, purchases) different value propositions.

More importantly, live-streaming exposes you to several customer-experience risks.

High on the list is technical problems. Live-streaming technology has come a long way in recent years, especially in these Covid times. But crashes still occur, and audio issues are more likely when live.  In a live stream, the signal runs from the speaker and the speaker’s computer to the camera & mic to the encoder to the server to the platform to the viewer’s computer.  Six points of failure.  An uploaded video runs from the platform to the viewer.  Only two.

Other, less damaging, but still pesky, risks include the speaker not going the full 50-minute increment and the speaker wandering, shall we say, “off topic”.  

There is more opportunity for higher production value with a pre-recorded video.  Granted, software like OBS and Wirecast allow streamers to create effects and to change shots during a live broadcast, but there is no room for error when streaming live. The risks of unprofessionally misspelling the speaker’s name in a lower-third, the speaker walking out of frame, exposure from an unmuted microphone, and dead air segments are completely eliminated in post-production. 

The Learner-Experience Spectrum:  Any instructor who has taught for any length of time knows that there is a spectrum of interactivity that learners exhibit: from those who sit quietly and attentively taking in the entire presentation to those who wish to ask lots of questions (and sometimes add their own commentary) throughout the class. I’ve watched many instructors, in a live class or a live-streamed webcast, wrestle with providing a satisfactory experience to an audience when the whole spectrum is represented.

A pre-recorded event allows the instructor to meet the needs of everybody in attendance.  Those who want just the material uninterrupted can get it, and those in-depth discussions with the instructor (with lots of details about that one particular client) take place in the background. In fact, the instructor can devote more attention to those who want it and provide a superior customer experience to everybody. 

You can map out the course timeline with far more precision (down to the minute) with a pre-recorded video.  Some education platforms (like Advance CPE) allow you to present that timeline to learners alongside the presentation. This is particularly helpful when presenting four or eight hours of material at a time.  Learners find the predictability of the pre-recorded video as valuable, if not more valuable, than the flexibility of a live-streamed event.  

I’ve facilitated numerous eight-hour events, and some of the more frequent questions include “Is the instructor going to cover XXXX”; “WHEN is the presenter going to…”; and most common: “When is lunch?”  Being able to respond: “The half hour break takes place precisely at 12:08 ET” or, better yet, providing the breakdown right next to video, is much more appreciated by a webcast viewer who wants to schedule a client call that day.

By far, it is the convenience factor that makes a pre-recorded education event far more profitable than a live-streamed one in that you can air it as frequently as you are able.  If all you have to offer your learners is a one-time shot, you are inevitably going to miss a certain number of customers who cannot make it that day. An eight-hour tax update, run every Thursday from October to January, is going to garner more eyeballs (and purchases) than the single gala event on December 12.

A three-day online conference will be much more appealing to potential viewers if they can view Day 1 in May; Day 2 in early June and Day 3 in mid June than if they are given the opportunity only twice a year to have to carve out three days in a row.  I have heard from instructors and other content providers that running an event multiple times per month “cheapens” the quality of the content.  

I have never heard that from a paying customer or seen it reflected in any purchase data.