Heidi Klum and thousands of others were evacuated from the live televised finale of Germany’s Next Topmodel after a bomb threat was made against the show. The TV viewers didn’t get a lot of information in regards to what was happening on site. Facebook and Twitter weren’t very helpful either. But one German reporter came up with the idea of live streaming the events via Periscope and within minutes almost 3.000 people watched live updates from the SAP Arena in Mannheim and followed the events.
Periscope, Twitter’s live streaming video app, has been used widely since its release.
Within the first day of its release, Aaron Paul live streamed from a Jack Garratt concert, The Voice offered a backstage tour with Season 7’s Matt McAndrew, Seth Meyers (or someone holding his phone) streamed the Late Night show from the set, and Kevin Jonas shared his breakfast with daughter Alena for anyone who wanted to watch.
Like Snapchat or Meerkat – the darling live streaming video app of SXSW, there’s no way to go back and watch older videos. Periscope only allows users to save the videos for 24-hour replay, after which they expire. However, not everything you missed is available, so FOMO (fear of missing out) is a major motivator for watching in real-time. The app allows users to stream a live broadcast from their phone’s camera while viewers can comment in real-time. Periscope allows both public and private broadcasts.
The potential TV use cases are limitless – from private Q&As to turning Periscope into another camera angle for a producer to use – and it will be exciting to see who makes an early splash on the platform. It’s no mistake that the main “Watch” button is a TV set.
So far users have already been treated to behind the scenes Periscope streams from the sets of shows such as the Today Show, Late Night With Seth Meyers, NBC Nightly News, The Voice and American Idol and stars from Aaron Paul and Arnold Schwarzenegger to Ryan Seacrest.
But not only in America, Periscope is already used to engage viewers further. Jan Böhmermann, host of ZDF’s late night show Neo Magazin Royale hosted a live video stream of his team’s editorial conference where he introduced the crew and replied to comments and questions viewers asked via the app.
Swiss Social TV channel joiz offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look of the recording of their daily news show NOIZ and CNN anchor and UK correspondent Max Foster used Periscope to report live on the birth of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. From St. Mary’s Hospital where Kate gave birth to Kensington palace, viewers could follow the latest royal baby events live via Twitter’s video streaming app Periscope. Check Vast Media for more examples.
TV shows and TV personalities are generally early-adopters, but within a couple of months Periscope has proven to be a valuable new platform when it comes to enhancing a TV show. However, Periscope has also a darker side. The new live-streaming app has already been used to illegally stream HBO’s Game of Thrones, and could also play havoc with live sports on TV, as a professional boxing event recently showed.
Technology has given consumers a clear, easy, one-button path to safely broadcast anything they want to anyone they want. Now content owners have to adapt to it.
Sandra Lehner is senior social TV manager at joiz, and a frequent contributor to MIPBlog. Check out all of her posts here.
Top photo via Periscope
