Is there such a thing as too much video? Let’s hope not, for the sake of pretty much every news media and social media outlet going.
Twitter, for one, is on board. In an interview with Fairfax Media, Twitter’s new Australian managing director Suzy Nicoletti said she believed live video would be key to turning the tide on the platform’s stuttering growth.
Nicoletti took on the role only recently, replacing former MD Karen Stocks, who left the company in October as part of an exodus that included Twitter’s India head Rishi Jaitly. Twitter’s chief operating officer Adam Bain also left in early November.
The former head of online sales at Twitter Australia, Nicoletti told the publication live streaming video would be an audience and revenue focus for the company. Twitter aims to reach profitability in 2017, recently announcing its intention to lay off about 350 employees as part of cost cutting measures.
Twitter already has streaming deals in place with professional sports leagues such as the NFL, and most recently, it streamed the Melbourne Cup horse race in Australia as part of its first live stream partnership outside the U.S.
“At this point we’re in a lot of discussions with different vendors across sport, media, news and entertainment,” Nicoletti said. “From an advertising perspective, we’re hoping to monetise those deals and we’re also looking to work with our global partners to help monetise some of the global live streams that will be available in the Australian market.”
So far, so good. But as Facebook has proven, the metrics of measuring online video audience can be contentious, and advertisers will want to know what they’re paying for.
Twitter’s NFL livestreams were mostly well received. In September, NBC reported the average audience on Twitter for the Texans-Patriots game was 327,000. The company has been approached for its Melbourne Cup viewership numbers.
Nicoletti’s live video focus squares with the apparent view of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who has called the service “the people’s news network.”
It’s not all sport, however. Twitter livestreamed a presidential debate with Bloomberg Media in September. Twitter Australia has even dabbled in food video content, although it’s unclear whether this is an ongoing strategy.
It will have plenty of rivals looking to monetise and win audiences for live video. There’s YouTube and Facebook Live to name just two, the latter of which nabbed the crown for hosting the first online leadership debate in Australia between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten in June.
And while Twitter may be all video now, not all video is created equal. In late October, the company announced it would be shutting down its six-second video platform Vine, which had been largely abandoned by both Twitter and its users.
This article first appeared in www.mashable.com
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