The Real Meerkat Manor Has Arrived
First it was Meerkat launching at SXSW.
Then, a day later, it was Periscope.
And there are surely more to come.
Many more.
The latest in the never-ending media/tech/video/TV revolution is ‘live streaming’.
As the irresistible force of Moore’s Law grinds on its inexorable path, live streaming was inevitable.
And now it is here.
But what doest it mean? In particular, what does it mean for the news/journalism business?
Every new iteration of video news gathering technology has been disruptive. Every new advance has left the wreckage of careers and jobs in its path. But I am willing to bet (place them now), that the arrival of cheap, simple, easy to operate, any-idiot-can-do-this Live Streaming is about to prove the MOST DISRUPTIVE technology yet.
Why is that?
A few months ago I was at a major TV awards show.
There were perhaps 5,000 people in the studio, but it was being broadcast live by a major US network.
I don’t know what the network paid for the rights for the broadcast, but I am willing to bet it was a lot. After all, NBC recently paid $7.75 billion for the rights for the Olympics through 2032. That’s a lot.
Now, when the lights went down, and when the big acts came on, many people help up their smart phones – maybe 1,000 people – and I suppose took photos or maybe recorded video. That’s what people do. People have smart phones with them all the time, and any time something happens, people whip out their phones and shoot stills or video.
So, if there were 1,000 smart phones at the event – in the audience – and if (as will soon come), those 1,000 smart phones had an app like Meerkat or Periscope or whatever comes next – and if those 1,000 people were live streaming from the Awards Ceremony – which they will do.. then what, exactly did ABC (or whomever) actually buy?
The answer would be – nothing.
They have bought what everyone else is giving for free – or rather ‘broadcasting’ for free.
And if it happens at an awards ceremony – it will also happen at concerts, the Olympics, baseball games, football games (I am in the UK at the moment), and, war zones. Live. 24 hours a day. Everything. All live and all free.
I am sure at this point that NBC is asking their lawyer if they can get their money back!
No.
They aren’t.
Because if the past is any indication of the future, (which it generally is), the major networks will simply refuse to believe that such a thing is possible. Because THEY ARE NBC! They have really big cameras. And they have PAID for the RIGHTS.
Well, good luck NBC.
Because, if history is any indication (which it pretty much always is), technology always trumps all that other stuff.
Technology is irresistible.
Resistance if futile!
(I like that one. Write it down. Resistance is futile.)
This is going to happen because every technology carries with it a kind of DNA. Listen to the technology, it will tell you what to do.
Oh, TV news organizations might (might) think that (one day) they might have to think about giving up their live trucks and satellites – maybe, one day, but not now. One day…
What they won’t contemplate is the idea that there might be 1 billion people or so live ‘broadcasting’ everything they see or hear to a worldwide audience, for free (!), 24 hours a day, worldwide. All the time.
Yeah.
That’s a lot to contemplate.
But it is going to happen.
How do I know?
The technology told me so.
1 Comment
de Kuyper J Scott March 29, 2015
And the real power of Google Glass is revealed.