The Mainstreaming Of Live Video Streaming

Internet-driven live video streaming certainly is nothing new. I served as CEO of live video pioneer SightSpeed over 10 years ago (Logitech acquired us), and we offered both high quality one-to-one and one-to-many live social video even back then – well before its mainstreaming via Skype video and Apple FaceTime. 

While live broadcast streaming is nothing new, live one-to-many personal broadcasting at mass scale is relatively fresh. Our increasingly mobile-first world -- and our increasingly robust networks to which they connect -- take the live broadcast opportunity further downstream to each of us. We now can, and increasingly do, easily broadcast ourselves in high quality to our friends, our fans, and the world via our mobile phones. And, we promote these live streams through our social networks, which then play it forward (hence, the “social” in streaming). That's why live streaming is up a whopping 65% year over year.

What’s particularly exciting here is that social streaming offers the potential to break down barriers between individual broadcasters – who are increasingly Media 2.0 personalities and “celebrities” -- and their audiences. Now true artist-fan and fan-fan engagement is possible, is happening, and is potentially extremely lucrative, since fans are happy to directly support their favorite personalities. Brands increasingly turn to live streaming opportunities to reach the coveted young demographic and engage with them more deeply.

Here are some of the key enablers and players in the live broadcasting OTT video space, plus some newbie innovators you should know.

I. THE ENABLERS

BAMTECH

Major League Baseball, a long-time Media 2.0 innovator, developed its BAMTech platform years ago to live stream not only its own games, but also other major live events like the Olympics, Super Bowl and Coachella. BAMTech also serves as the backbone for on demand streaming. That’s why Disney, in 2016, invested $1 billion for a 33% share in BAMTech and ultimately acquired 42% more in 2017 (thereby owning a 75% controlling stake at a $3.75 billion valuation). BAMTech now serves as the foundation for Disney’s new premium OTT video ambitions. 

Ever-observant competing media company Turner which, like Disney’s ESPN, also places live sports front and center, followed Disney’s lead and bought a majority stake in competing live streaming platform iStreamPlanet. Turner had no desire to be beholden to a competitor’s technology platform. 

 BULLDOG DM

Meanwhile, smaller fish also play big in this live streaming pond, as they focus on particular high impact use cases. With unique expertise and deep industry cred born over the course of several years, Bulldog DM (“DM” as in “digital media”) is the innovator and trusted source for the live streaming of major music festivals like Bonnaroo, Governors Ball, Outside Lands, Afropunk, Pickathon, and Numberfest. Major brands (including AT&T, Samsung, American Express, Coca-Cola, Sony, Nestle, Snickers, Tiffany, Hilton, Nissan and Facebook) flock to Bulldog to reach and engage with the coveted youth audience that increasingly prioritizes “experiences” over “things.” Facebook reports that users watch Bulldog DM’s live streams 3X over on-demand streams, and those live streams garner 6X more engagement. Heady stuff. Particularly for marketers.

With its pole position in the burgeoning market for the streaming of live festivals and events, Bulldog DM looks to expand its vision significantly in 2019 and become the central home and brand for all things “festival.” According to CEO John Petrocelli, “The world by and large transitioned to an experience economy, especially for millennials and gen Z consumers. Their priority is shared experiences, and if they cannot attend, they still want to have collaborative, participatory, real time engagement on their device. Live streaming provides both that engagement and the amplification brands want from their experiential marketing strategies. We enable brands to present experiences to viewers and transform those viewers into delighted participants in the live streamed digital broadcast – creating a ‘win win’ for all stakeholders – brand, content owner, artist, promoter, fan, and platform.” 

Bulldog is one important Indie to watch. It too will be swallowed up – for its deep expertise, its unique festival and brand relationships, and its ultimate strategic vision. No one does it better.

II. THE SOCIAL ANIMALS

FACEBOOK LIVE

Then there’s Facebook Live, which stole a page from young upstart Meerkat. Remember them? Not so long ago – in 2015 to be exact – Meerkat unleashed social streaming’s “broadcast yourself” possibilities en masse and became an instant Media 2.0 darling, attracting $12 million in blue chip venture capital cash in the process. 

But, as is frequently the case in the world of Media 2.0, a much deeper-pocketed player – in this case Twitter – copied and soon eclipsed Meerkat with its own Periscope app. Subsequently, in yet another case of tech-driven survival-of-the-fittest where the strong prey on those beneath them in the food chain, Facebook stormed onto the social streaming scene with Facebook Live and dealt a significant blow to Twitter’s pole position. Clever little Facebook even borrowed Twitter’s original magic number and signed 140 celebrities and companies to create live content for its launch.

Facebook Live is now the live social streaming platform of choice, although Snapchat and Instagram aren’t too far behind – particularly for teens and tweens.

TWITCH

One-to-many Internet-driven broadcast services like Twitch have catered to specific, frequently non-obvious live streaming use cases for quite some time as well. In Twitch’s case, the service live streams gamer challenges and contests. So massive and valuable are Twitch and its young male audience that Amazon scooped up the service in 2014 for nearly $1 billion (see, there’s that stealthy, crafty, somewhat insidious Amazon again). Could any of you reading this book have predicted that one? 

Well, welcome to the mysterious, ever-changing and unexpected world of Media 2.0. 

MOBCRUSH

LA-based Mobcrush caters to gamers as well, enabling them to “go live, get paid” by live streaming their gameplay on all major social platforms (Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter), as well as its own. CEO Mike Wann boldly tells me that “Mobcrush is leading the creator driven revolution.” He explains it this way. “With the advent of the digital camera and integration into everything we own, and the social platforms now becoming where most consumers now consume their content, content popularity and distribution are now a true meritocracy. Mobcrush is helping creators reach all their audiences in real time across social platforms all at the same time.” 

Mobcrush’s live platform also enables its gamer creators to chat with each other and benefit from sponsorship and other monetization opportunities, thereby -- in Wann’s words – “empowering creators to reach their true potential and help them turn their passion into their career.” Yes, you read that right. Gaming is now a career option.

In any event, who am I to disagree with Mike and his “Who’s Who” of blue chip media/tech investors that include Kleiner Perkins, Evolution Media, CAA Ventures, Raine Ventures, BAM Ventures and Advancit Capital that have placed bets to the tune of $36 million?

CAFFEINE

Backed by a buzz-worthy $100 million Q3 2018 investment from 21st Century Fox, Caffeine is a new live social broadcasting platform that emulates Amazon’s Twitch. Fox executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch, who sits on Caffeine’s board, explains the new platform’s power this way. “The combination of the Caffeine platform with a content studio that benefits from Fox Sports’ expertise in live events and programming, will help position Caffeine to deliver compelling experiences in eSports, video gaming and entertainment.”

Caffeine aims to unite what it estimates to be more than one billion (yes, billion!) gamers, their frequently rabid fans, and streamers in general. “We want to bring the world together around friends and live broadcasts,” says CEO Ben Keighran.

COUNTLESS OTHERS

Other live streaming-focused newbies have come and gone. In 2016, leading karaoke app Musical.ly birthed Live.ly, giving our kids yet another way to broadcast themselves in order to receive the validation they apparently so desperately crave (despite it being so obvious to us). But, Musical.ly later shut it down, only to be swallowed up and spit out itself by Chinese media company Bytedance (owner of the already-massive TikTok, which is taking the world by storm and is becoming a real threat to major U.S. based social platforms).

We are still very much in the early innings of live one-to-many social broadcasting, but its reach into our daily lives just these past few years is impressive. 

[THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM MY NEW BOOK "FEARLESS MEDIA", WHICH IS AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON -- AND IN WHICH I COVER OUR NEW TECH-DRIVEN MEDIA WORLDS OF VIDEO, MUSIC, IMMERSIVE, ESPORTS AND LIVE EXPERIENCES].