This week I want to navigate some of the legitimate business needs in the live broadcasting space. But like anyone helping a friend new to a city, lesson number one is always a warning of which alleys not to enter.
There is a good reason video sharing giant YouTube, now corporate courtesan of the Google empire, has decided to shy away from live video broadcasting. Unsurprising to most of us, live broadcasting on the internet has a very risque sub-community of young followers and interested parties. Stickam has become the service of choice for that market, as is evident to anyone searching their site.
Stickam, started by Advanced Video Concepts in 2006, was an interesting technology company when it hit the press. Well built, easy to use live video streaming tools made for inexpensive web cameras has the potential for great social impact and consumer activism when used responsibility. Yet early on Stickam thought small as they focused on the MySpace social graph as a way to get AVC’s video technology out to a huge, interested demographic. Through MySpace’s youth audience, Stickam was able to establish a large stake early by promising teens unrestricted access to content distribution. As their success attracted more attention, it brought with it the reputation of an uncensored, lawless landscape. Accusations allege that AVC’s parent company is in the adult entertainment business, loosely linking the youth related site to pornagraphy.
“Letting people do whatever they want is one way for these sites to differentiate themselves,” said Josh Bernoff, a Forrester Research analyst. “It is the race to the bottom.” – IHT
Stickam’s community aside, the AVC technology is solid. There are a few notable users of the service like Leo Leporte that have promoted the possibilities as well as the potential. As with any video sharing service, you can embed Stickam videos into your site without your viewers ever seeing the Stickam community site. For a progressively thinking business this can be a great option as the Stickam tools for live broadcasting are extreamly easy to use. Still, it is hard to separate the Stickam reputation and its communtiy from its technology.
When deciding between technology and community, it is clear where Stickam has its attention. Robin Bechtel, Warner’s vice president for new media, said in an article with the International Herald Tribune that people would migrate to even controversial video sites if they have features that MySpace and YouTube did not.
“People are going to go where the content is,” Bechtel said. “If Stickam has celebrities and is entertaining, they will go there.- IHT
Next we will take a look at a more viable business option in the free web streaming domain, ustream.
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