It’s being called the “natural evolution of streaming video.” But at what cost? Interactive Live Streaming (ILS) can be cost prohibitive to all but the largest streaming providers, so how can a broadcast television operation eager to monetize its streams or a radio station owner with digital video dollar-generation desires act without denting the bank account?
A report released in conjunction with IBC 2024, held earlier this month in Amsterdam, offers some insights.
The companies providing the tips are Livepeer Studio, and technology analyst Caretta Research. They share how a distributed streaming infrastructure can achieve revenue generation and viewer engagement in a cost-efficient manner, bringing co-viewing, audience chat, polling, gifting, betting, transactions, live pricing and auctions to life for those eager to tap into new retail, wagering, sports, gaming and education opportunities.
“Enabling real-time delivery, ILS, and integrating real-time engagement tools is expensive, complex, and often requires custom development,” Livepeer shares. “Regular cloud video solutions and centralized streaming infrastructure fail to deliver the cost efficiency and flexibility emerging and established streamers need to deploy ILS as part of their strategy and grow new revenue.”
The report illustrates how cost-effective real-time streaming opens up profitable ILS-driven business models to a wide range of streaming companies, enabling them to augment subscription or ad-based strategies that struggle to deliver sustainable revenue growth.
Ed Barton, Research Director at Caretta Research, said, “Real-time interactivity is fundamental for various streaming use cases that need to accelerate profitability and engagement. However, legacy technology and traditional video workflows constrain experimentation with and deployment of interactive live streaming. Distributed streaming delivers game-changing cost savings that make interactivity-driven revenue models possible for a new breed of streaming business.”
Livepeer Studio founder Eric Tang added, “The media industry is rapidly pushing for real-time interactivity, but costs and impractical solutions make it hard for growing streaming companies and content creators to engage with their audiences on a deeper level. Livepeer Studio makes high-quality interactive live-streaming achievable to any content owner or entertainment brand, sidestepping the eye-watering costs of traditional cloud providers while making it easier than ever to build, engage, and monetize rapidly growing streaming communities.”
Supporting both WebRTC and HLS protocols, Livepeer Studio delivers low-latency live streaming with real-time interactivity, advanced viewer engagement, and performance analytics while ensuring high reliability and video quality.
The report is available free to download here.
