Live streaming: 8 deadly scares your Mama warned you about

Live streaming: A boon for platforms, content owners, advertisers & viewers

The global live streaming market is set to reach more than $247 bn by 2027. Taking a cue, more and more broadcasters and platforms are now focusing on live streaming more than ever. A recent example – Amazon Prime Video signed an exclusive contract with NFL to stream Thursday Night Football (TNF). 

Apart from sports, another hugely popular genre in the live streaming world is – news. In fact, about 56% of live streams are driven by breaking news. 

These numbers clearly indicate a trend – audience preferences are evolving. About 60% of US viewers prefer watching TV via live streaming. This increased inclination towards live streaming opens up new avenues for every stakeholder involved. While content owners get the reach they always dreamed of, platforms and advertisers get to make the most of their content with new monetization opportunities. Last but not least, viewers get access to round the clock, up-to-the-minute premium live content. 

While live streaming sounds like a good bargain for everyone, there are a few aspects that can go wrong and spoil the viewing experience for your audiences. Let’s look at eight of them closely.

1. Latency rates
   The biggest fear for content owners, platforms, advertisers and viewers is a time lag while watching live videos. Imagine a situation where your friends watching a soccer game on traditional TV get to celebrate your favorite team’s victory a minute before you. It can be a nightmare, isn’t it? Whether it is a sports match or the latest on what’s happening around the world, an ideal live streaming experience must offer low latency rates.
   
   
2. Video quality
   In today’s world where almost everyone has a UHD-ready device, video quality is of utmost importance. In fact, broadcasters have a high risk of losing up to 25% of their revenue due to bad streaming quality. If that’s not a gamble you’re willing to play, you must invest in a live orchestration solution that offers a high-quality video output without compromising on the latency rate.
   
   
3. Equipment 
   For traditional broadcasters, another scare gets added to the mix – managing multiple production equipment and a crew to operate them. A fix for this problem is to choose a vendor who can effortlessly move your operations to the cloud and help deliver a seamless live experience. All this without much dependency on heavy equipment and a media crew.
   
   
4. Remote management
   If the recent pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to have the option to run live streaming operations from anywhere. By allowing a single operator to simultaneously manage multiple live segments, remote management can be a gamechanger for you.
   
   Read more: Unleash growth & agility with unified broadcast workflows on Cloud
     
5. Attractive graphics
   It’s impossible to provide the best live streaming experience without having real-time, high-quality graphics in play. Be it a sporting event or a live news segment, graphics such as lower-thirds provide critical information like breaking news captions, live scores, game analysis and so on. They also help make the entire viewing experience more immersive for the viewers by offering interactive elements such as game projections, polls and so on.
   
   Read more: Delivering exceptional graphics and cost advantage with CPUs
   
   
6. Robust DR
   Having an effective DR (Disaster Recovery) solution in place is an indispensable arrangement you need to make for a large-scale live event streaming. Disasters are unpredictable and can potentially disrupt the entire viewing experience. If you are a traditional broadcaster, the damage caused to your physical infrastructure can cost you even more. 
   
   
7. Ad monetization
   If you want to make the most of a live event, you need to monetize it well. This is where state-of-the-art technologies like DAI (Dynamic Ad Insertion) come in handy. Choose a tool that helps you provide highly personalized advertising experiences while tapping into some innovative ad formats such as contextual video ads, DBI (Dynamic Brand Insertion) and many more. 
   
   Read more: SSAI: A deep dive into effective content monetization
   
   
8. Live stream recording
   You can maximize ROI by recording and reusing your live content on-the-go. It lets you increase the shelf-life of your content while making the most of it even after the live event gets over. The recordings can be​​ packed and presented in different formats and segments tailored to the needs of your viewers. For instance, top 10 goals or promising players to look for this season. 
   
   

   Did these give you chills too? 
   Thankfully, our cloud-backed solutions can help you cover these bases and more.

   Amagi LIVE and Amagi CLOUDPORT offer you all the support you need to run seamless live operations. You can grow your revenues while we manage a range of live events for your linear as well as VOD channels. 
   
   What’s more?

   • Spin up live, UHD-ready, broadcast and OTT channels dynamically
   • Versatile scheduling controls   
   • Deliver content across the globe with multiple feeds for specific events
   • Frame-accurate switching and ad-break control 
   • Dynamic, real-time advanced graphics insertion
   
   Ready to open up new revenue streams and maximizing cost-effectiveness? Talk to us.
   

   Write to us at cloudandme@amagi.com.