Big Brother Broadcasts Live Via Streaming Video

The phenomenal success of Network Ten’s Big Brother over the past week was noted in a Weekend Australian Financial Review article called Big Business and Big Brother meet in new love match to be predominantly due to  the shows live-broadcasting over the internet via streaming video.

The explosion of streaming video onto the internet would appear to be realising the potential that many believed it has had since its inception on the internet in the 1990’s.

It is well-known that the most effective Television shows have always been able to generate attention through word of mouth and traditional advertising methods. However, thanks to broadband internet and the increasingly popular ability to stream video over the internet,  Network Ten appears to have discovered a method to ‘cross-promote’ its leading reality show Big Brother through 24-hour live video streaming of the show not only over the internet but also to all 3G mobile phone customers.

This combination of streaming online media, streaming mobile content and television seems to satisfy what has been labeled the “simultaneous media consumption” needs of today’s youth; the habit of watching three things at once. In filling this void for today’s technologically experienced youth, the Big Brother concept has been further monetised through revenue generation from online-advertising networks and an increased television, mobile and internet audience.

Specifically, the readiness of the staggering 550,000 registered users of Big Brother’s media-rich website to pay for the streaming videos has been contrasted with the traditional reluctance of internet users to pay for static content; a dream for the future of streaming video on the internet.

It has been reported that the second most popular multimedia website in Australia, Youtube, where users are permitted to upload and share their own streaming videos, is now growing at a staggering 35,000 video uploads and over 40 million video streams each day.

With all this in mind, it is clear that in pioneering the combination of both online and mobile streaming video with traditional television in Australia, Big Brother has begun to realise the potential of the online streaming video audience and has uncovered a “blueprint for an instant pay-off in audience impact and hard dollars”.