Live Video-Based Programming Opportunities - for FREE (kind of)
Streaming live video over the Internet with interactive chat, commenting, archives, embedding options and more has become so easy a pre-teen could do it, and they are literally.
Any business, organization or individual now can program their own content and offer it live to whatever audiences they are able to attract.
Sounds a lot like the days when network television was actually relevant, doesn’t it?
Sites like Ustream.tv and Stickam offer marketers options we’ve never had before. Back in the “olden times” (meaning 2 years ago) if you wanted 100 people to watch your live streaming video at the same time, you had to send each one their own huge stream of data and that meant sky high bandwidth and service charges. Furthermore, you couldn’t even begin to think about streaming to that many people unless you had a high speed T-1 line installed at the shooting location.
Now these two companies (and probably a handful more I’ve never heard of) take away all that hassle. All you need is a computer, a consumer grade Digital Video Camera, a DSL connection and a few minutes to register with one of these sites and you can be live and “on the air” with your message. Of course, all these companies are really providing is the technology - the content is still totally up to you and there are very few, if any, restrictions.
The better shows will still require budgets to pull off which is why I caveated my headline.
In many ways, live events are much harder to pull off than creating video content from previously recorded material - there are no take 2’s or “do overs” - whatever happens, happens. Bottom line, there are definite opportunities now to communicate directly with your target audience and to offer content that would have been far too expensive to produce and distribute via traditional channels.
