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The crazy near-future of mobile live video.  Subscribe to this newsletter for free.

Mobile Media Memo

Welcome!  There are two big stories making the rounds in mobile media circles this week.  I'll cover the first in links, and I wrote a quick piece on the second.  - Cory

A wave of distributed content is coming (Joshua Benton in Nieman Lab)
Analysis of the NYT report that Facebook may host publisher content in its app in exchange for a revenue share.  "This shift is a predictable result of the rise of mobile devices," Benton writes. And the growing superiority of apps.

How Facebook could kill the news brand (Felix Salmon in Fusion)
The less optimistic view.  "The important thing is the information itself, rather than the place it came from," explains Salmon. "News has become disaggregated."

Don't take a flying leap (Dave Pell)
The least optimistic view. "News organizations should not take that leap of faith. They should not trust Facebook to deliver the news anymore than Facebook should fear their ability to build a competing social network," Dave Pell explains in a Medium post.

Other mobile media news in links...

BBC News switches to a responsive design (BBC News)
And gets the typical complaints from desktop users who said it feels "empty" or "too bright." Meanwhile, 65% of visits are mobile.

Inside Seattle Times' shift to a responsive site (Mike Monteiro)
A great piece that tackles some of the challenges of going mobile. "Any redesign of a media property has to include a redesign of the ad model," Monteiro writes.

The days of mobile on the cheap are over (Mobile Marketer)
A new Forrester report urges brands to step up their mobile efforts and "dig in."

The big reverse of the web (Dries Buytaert)
Smart: "In the next 10 years, we will witness a transformation from a pull-based web to a push-based web. When this 'Big Reverse' is complete, the web will disappear into the background much like our electricity or water supply."
 
The Crazy Near-Future of Mobile Live Streaming

A lot has been written in the last couple weeks about the explosion of Meerkat, the pending debut of Periscope and the rise of mobile streaming apps, from Stringwire to Stre.am.  So instead of rehashing the present, let's project the near future.

If there are hundreds of live streams today, there will be thousands tomorrow. Instead of searching for something to watch, live streams will just appear, rocketing around your favorite social apps, propelled by the popularity of the moment. No need to tune in; they'll just be there.

Many streams are live, many more are scheduled.  So many in fact, algorithms will assemble them across time, knitting together channels of best-of-the-moment live streams.  Niches of all kinds.  Even channels that blend together your favorite people, brands and interests.

If you don't like something, just swipe the screen or say "next" to your TV. Forget unbundling. This is the rise of the everycast. 

At first it will suck, as most new disruptive things do.  People streaming themselves eating.  Driving.  Typing aimlessly on a computer.  Old school TV people will scoff.  It's like explaining the allure of Twitch in the early days; only avid gamers got it.  But social streaming will evolve, communities will form and younger users will gravitate to it like they did YouTube.  It will grow into its own mega-format.  

As with YouTube, stars will shine. Brands will join. Live channels will emerge. VC money will flow. MCNs will form. TV will cherry-pick talent.

It will be hell on your data plan.

But what's truly unique, even more than YouTube before it, is the raw authenticity, the unexpected spontaneous nature of live streaming. Sure, you can stage some of it -- as many brands will -- but this is harder to fake.  For the most part, it's REAL, it's happening RIGHT NOW and if you don't watch it, you could MISS SOMETHING.

This is the stuff of Millennials.

It won't kill TV.  But attention is not unlimited, and with each new social time suck, each new distraction, people will have less time for traditional media.  As these live streams become more ubiquitous, they'll not only attract a long tail of attention, they'll also throw off a wake.  By nature of so many live streams, people will capture the craziest things on video, creating new genres of video moments.  They'll become the autoplay clips that burn up the social nets, amplifying the attention suck and attracting new live audiences, hungry for more.

Mobile streaming will blow up.  In the next few weeks, someone will stream live from a big breaking news story and everyone will write about it.  Then it will happen again and again, multiple cameras from multiple angles, history playing out in real time, mapped across the globe.

All the hype will lead to a bubble. But don't let that distract you. This will be the most disruptive thing to happen to TV since YouTube.

We all knew it was coming, but now it's here, held tightly in the grasp of the social giants. Just think about what you would have done back in YouTube's early days. Think about all the businesses built off of it.

Welcome to the new era of video.  Hold on tight.

- Cory Bergman (@corybe)

Feedback?  Send me a note at mobilemediamemo@gmail.com.


Thanks for reading, and please share with your co-workers and friends.  If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe for free here.  You can also get mobile headlines throughout the week on @MobileMediaMemo.

(Full disclosure: I run Breaking News, a mobile startup owned by NBC News, which also owns Stringwire. These are my personal opinions, not necessarily those of my employer.)
Copyright © 2015 Cory Bergman, All rights reserved.


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