A Solution to the Challenge of Monetizing Live Streaming Events

Arguably, the ability to offer the ‘being there’ experience (e.g. the immediacy of interactions, outcomes, or shared experience) to events through live streaming online, and doing so on almost any budget with global reach, is a killer application of content distribution over IP (Internet Protocol) on the World Wide Web. Prior to live streaming on broadband, broadcasting costs, coupled with outlet and distribution footprint constraints, essentially restricted the viability of live broadcasting to major TV networks.

It is of interest to note that TV broadcasting began with live-to-air broadcasting from TV studios and stages, often in front of a live audience.  Over time, pre-recorded programming came to dominated TV broadcasts, and live-to-air broadcasting became limited largely to news and talk shows, and mass interest “must-see live” events, such as sports, special presentations and awards shows, where viewership interest, ratings, sponsorships, and/or channel branding needs made investments in live event broadcasting desirable or necessary. In all cases, however, programs needed to be watched at the time of airing or be missed. Printed program guides be they from daily newspapers, or the massively popular weekly published TV Guide, played an essential role for TV viewers.

The introduction of VHS and other (more advanced) recording devices and time-shift solutions enabled viewers to watch desired content at their convenience rather than pre-set times. The ever-present daily TV guides and channel broadcasting schedules lost much of their necessity, as most desired programs could now be watched from recorders rather than during the live broadcast. Simultaneously, special interest channels (e.g. ESPN for sports, CNN, Fox and other channels for 24/7 news, etc.) focusing almost exclusively on live-to-air broadcasting began to satisfy fans of real-time viewing of special interest content with mass-market appeal.

Other technological advances, specifically those related to this article, enabled live capture and streaming over IP with products, services, and solutions ranging from consumer mobile phones to sophisticated professional multi-camera virtual set production/ streaming tools. Today, essentially any content producer can stream live events to viewing destinations globally to essentially all connected devices at a very minimal cost. Even though live broadcasting/streaming of mass interest events/content (e.g. news/sports, etc.) continues to be dominated by TV Networks and the very select few online destinations, solutions for live streaming noted above have enabled huge market opportunities in the live events presentation marketplace. These include countless special interest content, limited interest content with a dedicated and passionate following, other compelling events which for whatever reason, are not prudent, or not possible to present by the majors.

However, even though live streaming online has been a ‘game-changer’ on the technical and delivery cost side, ensuring viewership awareness, ticket transaction and viewership at the start time remains a rather major challenge for indie live event broadcasters. Lacking a major promotion budget can present a Herculean challenge to live event productions, especially for one-off and infrequently scheduled events, making such events a financial loss, despite minimal capture and streaming costs.

Reliance on the traditional ‘pull model’, namely massive promotion (often across digital and print media) to pull viewers to the viewing destination at the start of the event for all but TV networks, and select major destinations is typically beyond their budget capabilities. While many of their events may have a rather sizable audience and monetization potential, interested viewers are likely to be spread out geographically, making the cost of ‘pull’ too costly or even beyond a prudent business expanse. Furthermore, unlike OnDemand shows, live streaming events also require viewers to be at a specific destination on a specified date and time and to do so having already completed the Pay-Per-View transaction. Thus, while capture and streaming technologies opened major opportunities for live streaming, challenges related to ensuring viewership which can generate enough revenue to make the live presentation financially viable remains a major obstacle.

My prior article, ‘Reversing the Distribution Paradigm’ (LinkedIn, July 19, 2019) focused on the benefits of ‘push’ distribution, made possible by online direct interactivity with viewers (wherever they may be online) over the traditional ‘pull’ distribution for OnDemand content. These benefits are even more significant for live event streaming by independent producers, especially so for special interest events with likely viewers broadly distributed geographically. Similarly, events with well-defined target markets but limited promotion resources, the utilization of a ‘push’ approach may well be the only financially viable solution.

The above-noted article also introduced our proprietary ‘push’ distribution product called SWIGIT (www.SWIGIT.com). We have also created a variation on SWIGIT for push promotion & direct access to live events which combines information about the event with an event date/time countdown clock, pre-event ticket purchase, event reminder notice and access to watching the event direct from e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks where the viewers may be, as well as direct access from any destination when the ‘embed code’ SWIGIT option is used.

A good example of ‘push’ approach of distribution was the live streaming by Swig Media of an event produced by an MMA league new to the market. Despite investing considerably to produce the event from the historic Zappeion Courtyard, in Greece, just steps from the Parthenon and the site of combat events at the first modern Olympics in 1896, the league still lacked the brand awareness and fan base to attract the desired viewership. Furthermore, with only one prior live MMA event production, reaching new markets and building their brand was also a high priority,

To help accomplish their goal, with minimal cost, the Producers used our proprietary Live-Event SWIGI, pushing it to their B2C and B2B contracts, and to social networks. Their SWIGIT efforts reached USA TODAY. USA TODAY, using the SWIGIT embed code option, was able to provide visitors to their destination direct access to the event without being moved away from the USA TODAY site.  Their decision to embed the SWIGIT to the event on their online homepage provided them with an attraction and a sticky factor and the league with major brand building and a significant spike in attendance.

By moving the ‘entrance gate” to the live event to as many locations where viewers may be, be it social networks, blogs, strategic destinations, sponsorship website, and direct mass mailing, rather than attempting to pull viewers from destinations to a designated viewing destination, events even with relatively short notice can garner a far larger viewership at a significantly lower cost than traditional pull efforts would yield. In addition to social networks, which can be excellent propellents for moving content to the viewers, we are developing innovative push solutions which hopefully will be the subject of a future article.

Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments and/or suggestions ([email protected])