YouTube’s Live Q&A Brings Order to Live-Stream Questioning

YouTube is adding a Live Q&A feature aimed at helping creators to interact with viewers during live streams. Now, when a Q&A starts a prompt will appear pinned to the top of the chat. As viewers begin chatting their questions, creators can select the ones they’re responding to and pin them at the top, too, so participants will know which query is being responded to. The new system brings some organization to what was a sometimes confusing Q&A format, with creators scrolling for questions and participants often clueless as to the context of the response. Continue reading YouTube’s Live Q&A Brings Order to Live-Stream Questioning

YouTube Adds ‘Green Screen,’ Most-Played, Gifting Features

YouTube is amplifying shopping features, adding an effect that lets creators use other backgrounds for shorts and offers a new monetization opportunity through gifting subscriptions. YouTube teased upcoming features that it claimed would make it easier for viewers to discover and buy from brands. At its Brandcast event in New York City, the Google unit touted new ways to engage shoppers, users and advertisers. One new feature allows two creators to simultaneously go live and co-host a single shopping stream, the idea being to double the audience for such events by drawing the fanbase of both creators. Continue reading YouTube Adds ‘Green Screen,’ Most-Played, Gifting Features

YouTube Adds Features to Help Creators Promote Premieres

YouTube Premieres, first announced in 2018, allows content creators to promote pre-recorded videos via a landing page for fans to gather before new content debuts. Now YouTube is enhancing Premieres with three new features. Live Redirect lets creators livestream a pre-show to viewers before they debut a new video and then automatically redirect them to Premiere just before it starts. BTS and Cardi B have been beta-testing this feature for a couple of months. The other two features are Trailers and the option of a custom countdown via Countdown Themes. Continue reading YouTube Adds Features to Help Creators Promote Premieres

Electronic Dance DJ Marshmello Performs ‘Fortnite’ Concert

On February 2, electronic dance producer Marshmello performed a 10-minute concert — as a digital avatar — to gamers playing the popular game “Fortnite.” The runaway success of this unusual mix highlights how games can not only gather millions of players, but also become a stage for a variety of entertainment. Marshmello’s representatives stated that the concert “attracted millions of viewers.” In June, Marshmello participated in an Epic Games’ “Fortnite” tournament, teamed with Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, a celebrity gamer. Continue reading Electronic Dance DJ Marshmello Performs ‘Fortnite’ Concert

Twitter Displays View Counts to Encourage More Video Posts

Twitter will begin to post how many views each video receives, a policy already enacted by Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. View counts will include videos that brands post organically and also run as ads, but not pre-roll ads. In 2014, when Facebook began publicly displaying view counts, brands and publishers saw that their videos had millions of views and thus increased the number of videos and video ads they ran. Twitter hopes for a similar response if their view counts are comparable. Continue reading Twitter Displays View Counts to Encourage More Video Posts

Periscope Adds Drone Integration and Ability to Search Video

Twitter, which owns Periscope, is about to debut a way to search via title or topic through the app’s more than 100 years of live video, also offering a list of suggested topics to search. Having launched a year ago, Periscope has accumulated more than 200 million broadcasts — but no way to search them until now. The search function also gives users a list of live streams by people they follow, and allows users to follow videos from a given region. Also new are drone integration and an ability to save live streams. Continue reading Periscope Adds Drone Integration and Ability to Search Video

TV Everywhere: Scripps Offers Live Streams of Cable Channels

Scripps Networks Interactive has partnered with TV Everywhere platform provider Anvato to offer viewers new live streams of the Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel online and via mobile devices. In addition to streaming Scripps programming, Anvato is powering dynamic ad insertion (DAI) on network websites and the Android and iOS apps for Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel. According to Matt Smith, chief evangelist at Anvato, DAI is becoming more popular as producers look to monetize their digital services. Continue reading TV Everywhere: Scripps Offers Live Streams of Cable Channels