Internet celebs like ObamaGirl help blogTV grow rapidly
Written on October 27, 2008 – 11:02 pm
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
About a month ago, YouTube had announced that they do not plan to enter the live streaming market. However, many broadcasters have a real need for a platform that allows them to broadcast their live shows. Shaycarl who is one of the most popular and subscribed to users on YouTube looked for such a platform and found it on Israel-based blogTV. So have others. In the last 4 months, 28 of YouTube’s 100 most subscribed to vloggers and 80% of YouTube’s contributors (who are not YouTube’s Media Partners) are broadcasting at least twice a week on blogTV.
Livestreaming another way for self-expression
Leading internet celebs such as Sexphil, Charles Trippy, Lisa Nova and Shaycarl are all broadcasting their own popular blogTV shows now. blogTV has also announced today that even ObamaGirl will be starting to broadcast on their site every Tuesday and Thursday evening. This is major for blogTV considering that elections are just around the corner. In the last year, the company’s founders have reiterated that live streaming is the next type of user generated content that end users will turn to just like they are currently using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Live streaming is yet another way for users to express themselves.
Monetizing livestreams
Yet this whole story is not just about user generated content for blogTV. The company is also monetizing this content. Fifty of blogTV’s top broadcasters are internet celebs which enables the company to sell ads in these spaces at premium prices of $10-$12 CPM. These are considered to be very high prices for a user generated site.
Leading player in the live UGC arena
blogTV is growing very rapidly. In fact, Quantcast shows that blogTV has more page views in the United States and around the world than uStream.tv. This makes it a leading player in the live UGC arena. In September alone, blogTV hosted over 20,000 different broadcasters that broadcasted their own unique shows. blogTV is reporting that in each of the last 3 months they had over 30% growth.
Each its own niche
There are a few different players in the live streaming arena and each has found its own niche. uStream and Justin.tv are dominating the TV broadcasting niche whereas blogTV has captured the UGC live streaming niche. So if you feel like you have something to say to the world, get on blogTV and say it. If not, you can still tune in to all the interesting content that other users are providing. You won’t be disappointed.
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Written on July 20, 2008 – 2:25 pm
Do you have an event that you want to cover live, but you lack the budget to cover bandwidth costs? Researchers from 21 different European countries have developed software that can stream video over a peer-to-peer bittorrent network, an open source initiative that might change the way we stream video on the Internet. 
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