The Future of Social TV: Streaming Live TV

Here is part 2 of the Future of Social TV blog series:  (Part 1, Part 3)

Streaming Live TV

Direct streaming of truly live TV on the Internet and second-screen devices remains the final frontier for producers and broadcasters. The fact that mobile phones now outnumber TV sets around the world by 3-to-1 and PC-based Internet users outnumber TV viewers by 4-to-1 is a clear indication that the industry must tackle this challenge. When it comes to breaking news, like the recent Boston Marathon bombings, viewers are clamoring for the option to turn to their tablet or smart phone to see what’s happening in the moment, especially when access to a TV set isn’t available.

There’s no doubt that live delivery is hard. The lack of format and protocol standards creates massive challenges for producers when it comes to delivering content that can effectively reach every screen with the reliability, clarity and quality that viewers expect. Fortunately, there are technologies that overcome this hurdle, making anything-in, anything-out live streaming video a reality, and MPEG-DASH is making great strides to further the cause of international video standards.

In the latest release of Wowza Media Server, we included support for MPEG-DASH. Find out more about MPEG-DASH.

Next prediction: Part 3 – Enabling Viewers to Influence Content