Lesson 4: Allow viewers to influence the broadcast or live stream
Over the last few months several live stream platforms have released new tools and features to improve interactivity during live streams. Facebook allows broadcasters to invite other presenters to join the stream. YouTube introduced low-latency live streaming which makes it easier to interact with your audience and respond in real-time to chat messages. Vimeo acquired Livestream to improve their live stream offering for content creators. Twitch launched extension to make livestream interactive. Extensions allows developers to develop clickable layers on top of the video to interact or show additional information. And finally, the founders of Vine launched HQ which live streams a trivia game twice a day.
Many of these features have already been applied for years by broadcasters. In this lesson of our 5 part series on what we’ve learned from our projects for TV broadcasters and how they can be applied to live streaming, we look at the importance of involving the viewer in the outcome of the broadcast. Based on our experience, there are 3 surefire ways to allow your audience to do this.
1. Use viewer feedback
First, allow viewers to provide feedback to show audience sentiment on screen in real time and discuss viewers’ reactions during the broadcast.
A good example is a project we did during the elections for the debates and nightly current affairs shows. For the first time, audience sentiment was used in real time during a political debate. This gave the moderator, viewers and the candidates themselves a glimpse into how the electorate reacted to their policy ideas. That lead to a bit of tap-dancing by some of the participants when they realized what they were proposing was unpopular. Best of all, the audience sentiment determined which politician was the “winner” of the debate, instead of the usual political pundits. The winner had the final say in the broadcast to amplify his message.
During the last TV debate of the campaign, the audience was asked for which party they most likely were gonna vote. These results showed to be a better prediction that the most trusted polling estimates. An exciting innovation and a great example how viewer engagement can benefit debates and news formats.
We see some of this real-time sentiment with Periscope and Facebook which allows viewers to provide hearts (and other reactions) during a broadcast. However, as we saw in lesson 2, it is important to structure your interactions for your type of content to get the most meaningful engagement.
2. Listen to the viewer
Secondly, try to think of new and innovative ways to allow viewers to influence the broadcast and then apply the feedback you gather right in the middle of your show. For example; you can consult the audience on what topics or issues to discuss next on a talk show, select the recipes to make in a cooking show, or which guests to invite for future episodes.
Allowing viewers to give their suggestions increases engagement which can result in higher recall of topics and advertising. Using viewer input can influence loyalty since viewers want to see their decision in the next show.
A great example is Kassa, a Dutch consumer interest program, that actively involved the opinion of viewers in discussions with studio guests. This allowed the presenter to quickly address false assumptions or steer the conversation based on viewer input.
Also Twitch streamer Goldamsel actively involves her audience. Twitch Extensions add an interactive overlay to the Twitch video player, enabling viewers to engage directly with the content. She used the Smart Click Maps extension to cook together with the viewer. Viewers could select the next ingredient by directly clicking on the produce in the video.
3. Let the viewer decide
And lastly, see if you can create a format in which the audience plays a key role in the outcome by including votes, online polls and results from trivia questions. Surely you all have seen a contestant use the “Ask The Audience” lifeline on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? But why limit this to the studio audience when you can asks millions of viewers.
ITV UK has a great example on how the audience plays a key role in the format. Don’t Ask Me Britain is a new prime-time entertainment show built upon the live opinion polling of viewers. Three teams in the studio try to second guess the opinions, likes and dislikes of the nation as they strive to avoid elimination and play the final Exit Poll for serious cash! The viewers at home are asked in real-time about their opinion about a variety of topics and their answers control the outcome of the format. Without viewer interactivity this format could not exist.
Another good example is NBC’s ‘Audience Got Talent’ which was broadcasted live on Facebook just before America’s Got Talent would air on TV. In this made for Facebook format four audience members had the opportunity to perform live for a Facebook audience. Viewer on Facebook decided the winner by voting in the comments using hashtags. The results were shown in real-time in the stream.
Allow your viewers to influence the broadcast
Allowing the audience to influence the content keeps viewers engaged and provides a level of entertainment few others can offer. It’s far more compelling to watch something you’ve had an impact on, than some regular old content that simply provides 1 point of view on matters. If you’re interested in learning more about how to get your audience to interact with your content, let us know.
If you find these ideas useful, remember to click follow on this page to stay up to date on all our upcoming posts, and click the little heart so more Medium readers can see the content. And remember to keep an eye out for the next instalment in this series; How to use data in your live stream.
And make sure to check out our other lessons:
P.S. Ex Machina is growing and looking for passionate developers, designers and project managers. Check all open positions on our website.
