LIVESTREAMING

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

IP Concerns 04 Origins 11 20 Viewing Habits

Early Social Publishers Monetization 12 21 05 Streaming in Live

Livestreaming 2.0 Facebook Live Data 06 15 22

Livestreaming Live Events Looking Ahead 09 Goes Mobile 17 24

Platform 10 19 Challenges Glossary Integration 25

DIGIDAY || WTFWTF isis LivestreamingLivestreaming 02 If you’re one of those people who likes to say that “X” is the future of media then it’s time to update your message because the new now is livestreaming.

But what is it and why is it on everyone’s lips? (And on their screens? And in their budgets?)

This is the age of digital video. Full stop. Moving images on digital screens are the lingua franca of digital media, the clock may already be striking twelve on this much heralded moment in new media. Video is great, but wither the human connection? The drama? The immediacy? In a world of time-shifted viewing where’s the urgency? Enter livestreaming, the natural successor to the video throne. Media brands are spending millions on live programming and live stream broadcasts are racking up millions, and in some cases billions, of views. The truly crazy part? This has all happened before.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 03 ORIGINS

The first generation of livestreaming relied on these desktop webcams to allow users to capture live video and transmit it over the web. The feature would later become standard on almost every web-enabled device, but in the early days a stationary computer was almost certainly required to stream.

The first livestreaming technologies are almost as old as the internet itself, launching in the mid- 1990s, but the first consumer-worthy livestreaming services, the ones that would enable the first livestreaming boom, didn’t hit the market until 1999.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 04 EARLY SOCIAL STREAMING

individuals at random for an impromptu face-to- face conversation. The platform quickly gained a salacious reputation, but it still points to something important about first generation livestreaming.

Broadcasting was no longer a one-way street, it These streamers were was, at least partially, interactive. generally stationary, broadcasting from bedrooms, dorm rooms, and very occasionally from sets constructed for the purpose. JustinTV–which would later be reborn as Twitch–took the concept Further Reading Amazon’s Twitch is a sleeping giant of media mobile for a select few, promoting a crop of “life streamers” who wore often–cumbersome mobile camera apparatuses in order to share every aspect of their daily life.

This first class of livestreaming platforms also included novelty acts like Chatroulette, a social platform that matched two webcam-enabled

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 05 LIVESTREAMING 2.0

Broadcasters used the platform’s screen sharing capabilities, designed for business meetings, to stream themselves playing online games. In 2013, What cash the year Twitch emerged as a leader in the genre, there was came from the world’s oldest internet 126 million Americans spent two or more hours a profession–no, not that one–display advertising. week playing online games. While advertisers were keen to put display next to anything that people were looking at, including The rising popularity of Twitch streamers–many livestreams, interest in more ambitious integrations of whom racked millions of subscribers and views was negligible…until the social streaming service in a few short months–combined with its endemic Twitch. relationship with gaming captured the attention of games manufacturers and other gaming adjacent Livestreaming video has been on a general uptick brands. At it’s height top streamers secured six since its inception–a record 2.5 million Americans figure brand sponsorships and the entire platform tuned in to YouTube streams to watch Hillary was purchased by Amazon for $950 million after Clinton take on Donald Trump in each of the 2016 a competitive bidding war with Google owned presidential debates– a trend driven largely by the YouTube. availability of better cameras, faster processors and more bandwidth. But the second explosion of livestreaming needed something else. Twitch provided it’s defining genre.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 06 10 YEARS AGO LIVESTREAMING

DESKTOP First generation livestreaming was tethered to the desk, the PC, and the webcam.

DIGIDAY || WTFWTF isis LivestreamingLivestreaming 07 LIVESTREAMING GOES MOBILE

The service, which relied on a connection to The rise of Twitter’s extensive user base to reach audiences, live platforms like Twitch reintroduced the idea of met a speedy end when the microblogging service must-see events. However nothing has boosted cut its connection to the Twitter API. However the livestreaming like mobile. idea of mobile livestreaming continued to capture attention, and investment. As of 2015, 68 percent of Americans owned at least one internet-enabled mobile device. The increasing Further Reading ubiquity of mobile devices with high quality cameras Where does Meerkat go without Twitter’s support? have primed the media space for a livestreaming resurgence.

In March of 2015 app developer Life on Air introduced Meerkat, a mobile livestreaming app for iOS and Android, at South by Southwest. The app touched off a new wave of interest in livestreaming by freeing broadcasting from the limitations of desktop cameras or cumbersome and expensive streaming cameras.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 08 PLATFORM INTEGRATION

It quickly supplanted Meerkat, taking advantage of Twitter’s highly-engaged user networks by allowing broadcasters to quickly connect with an audience. Integration with Twitter meant that users could tap into their existing following on the app to share broadcasts via push notifications.

Because it partially solved the problem of audience acquisition, Periscope drew the attention of media outlets who experimented with live broadcasts for the first time, as well as from investors who sank dollars into measuring analytics for the platform and cultivating native influencers. Notably, television personality Al Roker, an early Periscope adopter, launched Al Roker Labs to study the platform and develop metrics and measurement tools for brands and publishers.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 9 IP CONCERNS

Neither Twitter nor HBO have published statistics about the exact number of streams viewed during the fight, but it was enough for Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to boast that his service had saved With Periscope-equipped phones numerous fans a $100 pay-per-view fee. HBO in-hand it was easy for members of the public to chose not to take the matter to court but the cable livestream any media event they attended. The network did file a formal complaint with Twitter practice threw up major red flags early on for corporate, the first salvo in what many expect will publishers and other content owners concerned be an ongoing battle over intellectual property in the about protecting their intellectual property. streaming space. These concerns quickly found their forum in an “IP is definitely on our minds” says Brad Cotton, unlikely place: the 2015 welterweight bout between general manager of digital sports content for NBC boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Universal. “Broadcast rights for league games are Billed as one of the premier pay-per-view television costly and with streaming apps on the market it’s events of the decade, the fight became the all too easy for that content to leak in a massive way subject of complaints from HBO after dozens of outside of our [owned] and [operated] channels.” attendees streamed their ringside view on the app, completely bypassing the cabler’s paywall. Despite threatened legal action HBO did not ultimately choose to litigate.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 10 PUBLISHERS IN LIVE

visited by celebrities, leaders and newsmakers. Live lets us take advantage of that to create something unique and timely for our audience.” The platform racked up 1 billion views over its first 18 months and averaged 30 million unique monthly views at its peak. HuffPost ultimately shuttered In 2012 the Huffington HuffPost Live in March of 2016 following parent post launched HuffPost Live. The mix of company AOL’s acquisition by Verizon. entertainment, interview and editorial content But HuffPost Live’s demise hasn’t deterred other was one of the first owned and operated live video publishers from taking a crack at livestreaming. products to exist outside of a social or steaming Cheddar, a native live media company covering platform. the investment and financial markets, launched in “We saw an opportunity to take advantage of our February of 2016. always-on newsroom to create daily live content,” The service broadcasts two hours of live video says Kirsten Ceislar, global director of digital video per day from the floor of the New York Stock for Huffington Post at AOL. “We’re always covering Exchange. Founded by former Buzzfeed executive the news of the day and our offices are constantly Jon Steinberg, the service is geared toward digital

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 11 millennials who have turned away from linear television. Like many of its peers, Cheddar operates in direct competition with broadcast and cable networks like CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business.

“We saw an opportunity to take advantage of our always-on newsroom to create daily live content.”

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 12 05 YEARS AGO LIVESTREAMING

RESURGENCE Livestreaming receives a shot in the arm from genre-focused social streaming platforms.

DIGIDAY || WTFWTF isis LivestreamingLivestreaming 13 FACEBOOK LIVE

The social giant has also financed some early experiments with Live offering cash payments to underwrite the efforts of digital media giants like Vox and Buzzfeed, traditional publishers like NPR, as The social giant well as a smattering of influencers and celebrities debuted its live video product, Facebook Live, in from Michael Phelps to Gordon Ramsey. the summer of 2015. The product rolled out slowly; Facebook first made it available to a select group of Results have been decidedly mixed. Buzzfeed celebrities and other influencers and later to major famously racked up 807,000 concurrent viewers with publishers before opening it up to regular users. a broadcast during which they wrapped a watermelon with rubberbands until the hapless melon exploded. Access to Facebook’s userbase of 1.65 billion allows Subsequent efforts, including a one-on-one interview publishers to reach substantial audiences with live between Buzzfeed legal editor Chris Geidner and broadcasts. Facebook has further sweetened the President Barack Obama earned a more modest deal for publishers by giving live content preference audience of around 35,000. After that, publishers like within its infamous algorithms, making sure that the Mic, Vox, and Buzzfeed have attempted a wide range broadcasts and recorded Live content float to the top of live experiments from one-off stunts to daily talk of the newsfeed. shows and news roundups.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 14 Despite missed returns, most digital publishers are optimistic about live as a way to capture some of the must-see urgency of linear television “They’re all hoping that Facebook Live will be the next mass audience play. It’s real-time, it’s comparatively low cost, and for live viewers it’s got some of that natural scarcity that makes TV so valuable” says Brian Selander, EVP of The Whistle.

Further Reading Facebook signs deals with media companies and celebrities for Live content “They’re all hoping that facebook live will be the next mass audience play. It’s real, it’s comparatively low cost”

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 15 LIVE EVENTS

The Whistle is a digital Of course sports aren’t the end of the line. network focused on online video sports content, Entertainment and politics also provide fertile one of the best performing livestreaming verticals. opportunities to capture rarified content for live Thanks to the magical combination of urgency and video. In 2015 Yahoo partnered with Live-Nation immediacy, the “big game” is one of the few things to deliver a daily concert live concert series in an that fans want to view live. That’s an opportunity for effort to draw audiences to its video products. And a streaming platforms and publishers. In fact, they’ve partnership between YouTube and The Independent already begun tangling with linear television over Foundation for Presidential Debates saw more than the right to stream league games. 2.5 million Americans tune in to watch each of the three debates during the 2016 election cycle. Last year, Twitter paid $10 million dollars to the NFL for the right to exclusively stream 10 Thursday Most platforms have chosen not to monetize against night regular season games. The price tag may these marquee events, but the opportunity to bring seem high for the struggling social app, but it’s also large and highly engaged audiences to content via a steal compared to what television networks pay livestream is a chance for digital to capture some of for broadcast rights to league games. By securing television’s hype. the rights streaming platforms have the opportunity to generate the same scarcity that has long driven lofty prices for linear TV advertising.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 16 TheJW most LIVE powerful andIN THE CONFUSING flexible LAND OF OTHER LIVE SOLUTIONS... Encoding set up (select Packaging set up (type, location, clusters, configuration, input filter, output filter, videoClick, platform. Shoot, Go Live frame rates, 2 DVR config) backup input) 3 The easiest way to distribute, manage and monetize videos on the web and mobile apps. We designed JW Live to be very easy to use, so you can 1 5 Create a channel Get 4 broadcast your live events with a quick and simple set-up that coffee Set up ad (metadata, packaging insertion takes as little as 5 minutes. partner, encoding partner, reflector) 6 Go to new channel, get URL endpoints https://www.jwplayer.com/Technical expertise not required — anyone in your video-solutions/com/headerorganization can set up a live stream in these 4 steps:- Preview stream 7 bidding Create a schedule 1 (event data, 9 Create Live Stream start/end, set Treat Headache 8 PLUS advanced options for archive, Simulcast to 2 Enter Event Details End trim, DVR, Broadcast Facebook and channel) Live! 13 3 Connect Source Stream Set business logic (paywalls, ad sets, embedding rules) 4 Go Live! 11 10 Go to master dashboard It’s that simple. 12 Plus, you can also customize the viewer experience, monitor Broadcast with camera & encoder real-time analytics, and then auto-archive the video for on-demand viewing.

Contact us to get started: [email protected] CHALLENGES

but there are a handful of barriers still standing in the way of the streaming future. As with most things in life, these problems fall into two buckets: People, and money.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 18 VIEWING HABITS

“That’s our big challenge,” said Selander, “Outside of our rights deals, how do we make something that people can’t wait to see, something that they don’t want spoiled. Getting people to tune in day-of Outside of a few tent pole events–The Super Bowl, means getting some of our creators to put together The Oscars, the election returns– there aren’t that something pretty spectacular on a regular basis.” many events that can get millions of people to tune in at the same time. We’ve become used to time shifted viewing, watching content when we want it, not when it airs.

Special events flout this rule but there are only so many must see events in the calendar. Outside of securing the rights to a major league sport or a big budget entertainment event, publishers looking to bring big audiences to livestreaming will have to produce their own must see content.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 19 MONETIZATION

Most advertisers still aren’t putting serious spending behind daily live content and Facebook, one of the largest livestreaming platform in the game, hasn’t rolled out a monetization model for publishers yet.

Without a clear ad-supported model, publishers have to rely on subscription or pay-per-view to extract some coin from their live content. There are some signs that that model can work. Organizations like the WWE–old hands at the pay-per-view game– have been successful launching a livestreaming component of their subscription product that’s partially pay-per-view.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 20 DATA

new livestreaming applications come with a data cost that’s hitting some viewers in the wallet.

Mobile livestreaming might be all the rage, but for many consumers the data it burns inspires a different kind of rage when their phone bill hits. More ambitious longform livestreamed content requires consumers who can afford the significant data burn it entails. That’s asking a lot now that unlimited data plans have gone the way of the dodo.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 21 00 YEARS NOW LIVESTREAMING

MOBILE Livestreaming gains new currency and functionality by going mobile.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 02222 LOOKING AHEAD

As viewers tire of glossy shortform video and express a desire for more authenticity, live video provides an easy way forward. It allows a less polished and more in-the-moment look at the world.

Livestreaming also has the potential to help digital publishers finally hurdle the divide between web and television by creating scarcity and urgency. Digital’s seemingly infinite inventory has saddled the industry with correspondingly low prices. Creating scarity will allow publishers to monetize live content at a higher CPM providing one of the much-needed building blocks for a sustainable media ecosystem.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 23 GLOSSARY

Linear Television This is the traditional TV you know Social Livestreaming Livestreaming broadcasts and love. Broadcast, cable and satellite TV all fall that are interactive. Many livestreaming platforms into this bucket. incorporate chat features or other tools to allow viewers to express enthusiasm during the Livestreaming Platform Technology that allows broadcast. These interactions can be used as customers to broadcast live video content using a metrics to measure the success of the content. camera and a computer through the Internet. Time Shifted Viewing In a world of binge Mobile Livestreaming This refers to livestreams watching, DVRs, and streaming services the idea featuring content captured and broadcast from a of appointment television has gone by the wayside. mobile device like a smartphone or table. Mobile Audiences have gotten comfortable watching what livestreaming applications have played a major role they want, when they want forcing marketers to in bringing livestreaming back to prominence. meet them there. Pay-Per-View Cable networks have traditionally gated certain exclusive events content using a pay-per-view model. Viewers can pay a one-time fee to watch a fight, a wrestling match, or other exclusive event not included in their cable package.

DIGIDAY | WTF is Livestreaming 24