Live Streaming Sport Commentary

Youtube, Facebook and Twitter are, at the moment – the Internet. We may all pretend it isn’t so, but we all know that these three platforms dictate what we see, what we hear and subsequenatially what we like and what we think. All of these three websites support live streaming in one way or the other. Live streaming launched a new trend, that still somehow hasn’t widely reached the world of sports.

Live Coverage of Big Events

During last year’s widely covered US Presidential Elections, every Youtuber with a political channel, that holds him or herself in high regard, had a live coverage of Election Night if not even the live coverage of the debates. These videos managed to record up to several million unique viewers (up to 4.5M), which is not far off from MSNBC’s TV coverage that attracted 5.9 million viewers. These Youtubers would film themselves in their own studios (real studios or improvised living room studios) watching the election results on TV and commenting on the events, while obeying the broadcasting rights and not showing the TV screen. As simple as it gets. This is a growing trend and slowly but surely you will be able to find your favourite youtubers and podcasters broadcasting live their takes on important events. Important events such as – anything really… From the Oscars over Grammies to other events that are key to the theme of the podcast.

Makes you really wonder why the world of sport hasn’t really cought on this trend.

Possibilities For Sport

As a big fan of both podcasts and video podcasts I find it really strange that there are almost no live video podcasts during sport events. And the format is ideal for sport games. Many podcasters film their podcasts live few days after the game, but live coverage of the event, same as the ones their collegues in showbusiness and politics have embraced are rare.

Joe Rogan is one of the few podcasters who saw the possibilities this type of broadcast offers.

Since Joe Rogan is the podcast heavyweight who can say that he manages to attract up to 100M unique wolrdwide downloads and views per month (yes, one hundred million), he knows what he is doing. He offers new information to his viewers but he also offers viewing buddies service to people whose friends don’t share their interests. If you are a sole MMA fan in your group of friends, Joe Rogan and his guests invite you to watch the fights with them after synching the youtube video with TV coverage. This triggers the sence of belonging Snapchat used to grow to today’s levels.

What Are Sport Podcasters Waiting For?

To watch the game and listen to live youtube coverage of the game simultaneously, you would have to mute the TV coverage. But I really doubt that muting the commentator would be a problem to anybody. From my experience, commentators more annoy than inform the viewers, so they really rarely help the fans enjoy the game. To be honest, my most enjoyable TV coverage of the game was an Arsenal game without the commentator. I could crank up the crowd volume and enjoy the pure experience. If at the time a live Arsenal podcast coverage of the game existed, it would only improve the experience. Some TV stations actually started to offer similar TV shows a while back. TV stations that did not own the broadcasting rights showed their pundits watching the game and reacting to events. Italian Diretta Stadion and English Soccer Saturday are some of those types of shows. Since these shows don’t have the „meat“ – game video, they have to be creative and interesting to fight with the actual games. This makes their coverage more interesting and more spontaneous (key in modern social media), proving that podcasters can make this format work online.

These shows can even create their own stars as is the case with AC Milan fan Tiziano Crudeli. It would be the same with Youtube live.

Conclusion

It is not an overestimation to say that video content on the Internet is catching up with the TV when it comes to impact and audience. Especially among the younger generations. Show business and politics youtube channels have gathered their momentum with live video comment of important events. They offer you viewing company of people whose opinions you value. You would not watch their live coverage otherwise. Also, if somebody’s modus operandi should be followed when it comes down to podcasting and video podcasting, that is Joe „100M unique downloads“ Rogan. And he is faithfull to this format for UFC nights.

World of Sport should and will join this trend very soon. This move will benefit many parties. Clubs and leagues could provide their own content for the fans, content that is free of fake neutrality, TV stations will have to up their game and improve their format, Podcasters and Youtubers will gain more audience (and therefore more sponsorhip), while fans will once again get the chance to improve their game watching experience.

Coming soon to your favourite Youtube channel.

 

Article sources: analytics.podtrac.com money.cnn.com twitter.com youtube.com