Live video seems to be more in demand now than ever. With
YouTube promising live streaming in the near future, and companies such
as Justin.tv and Mogulus increasing in popularity.
I wrote
about Livestation back in September of last year. At the time, the
service was a newly launched online television
service in private beta which followed in the footsteps of Joost and
Babelgum.
However it did have one clear advantage in that it offered
‘live’ radio/TV streams from
popular broadcasters such as the BBC.
Live, Not On Demand
Where all of the competition offers ‘on-demand’ content that
can be
paused and played back at any time,
Livestation
takes the old-school route (similar to traditional television) in
providing live video and audio content for its users.
Now, along with a redesigned look (and logo), Livestation has
made a smart move in
announcing that it will further differentiate
its service from others by moving into the niche category of live
news.
Apparently, statistics from a technical trial (which included
well-known international broadcasters Al Jazeera,
BBC, Bloomberg, EuroNews, and France 24
among others) showed that during the time since the private beta
launched, Livestation viewers have been spending more than 4 hours each
month just keeping up with the latest news.
CEO Matteo Berlucchi
Livestation CEO
Matteo Berlucchi, hinting that there is a growing appetite for live
news online among internet users commented:
“These statistics are extremely impressive and significantly
higher
than we expected, considering the limited selection of channels
available during the [technical] trial.”
Also, research from GP
Bullhound has shown a market for live Internet television and
a survey by UK communication authority Ofcom from last
July shows that DVR owners would rather watch live news and sports over
on-demand or recorded programming.
Research Shows The Need
Grant Warrell, Director of GP Bullhound stated:
“While the Internet TV market has been focusing on developing
on-demand video platforms, we believe that the market for live video
streaming is potentially much larger and of more interest and appeal to
computer users,”“Live
content creates valuable shared experiences and usually represents
premium content, making it a key source of revenues for broadcasters.By bringing people together at the same time, live content also creates
formidable new opportunities for audience interactivity when delivered
on the Internet.”
Conclusions
We will soon see just how much potential live online news has,
as
Livestation has also now announced that it will soon release a new beta
version of its software (the service is still private as of now),
followed by a public unveiling to come later in 2008.
As far as I am concerned news stories are more effective when
live,
given the time-sensitivity of the daily content news broadcasters
provide. No one wants to watch last week’s news because those stories
may no longer be relevant.
With all of the other online TV services
focusing on on-demand content, the new ‘live news’ direction for
Livestation may just be what it needs to stand out and build a user
base. First, however, the service needs more than the four news
channels that were available at the time of my testing.
This article is based on a Profy post written by Michael Garrett.
