With a far more positive spin, something like that happened with television’s upfronts, which spawned online’s NewFronts and now Tuesday’s LiveFronts, a showcase for the latest streaming infatuation -- live streaming.
It happens all day Tuesday in New York at the Kimpton Hotel Eventi on Sixth Avenue and will feature speakers from sports media outlets, experts like Allison Stern from Tubular Labs and Eric Korsch from Mashable, and broadcast network digital execs.
While the other “fronts” really do seem like pre-sales event for a coordinated buying season, LiveFronts appears to be more of a flat out introduction of streaming and its possibilities.
Viacom Labs worked on the idea with MTV Australia. Viewers were asked to live stream themselves dancing. Viacom Labs could download them from most platforms with the inclusion of a hashtag, letting a producer view many dancers simultaneously.
That actual experiment seems modest to me, but it has enough to cause some excitement about what it portends. Although it’s possible the local TV horse has been beaten to death by this point, it seemed to me that stations always loved the idea of “local” — as long as it is as near to free as possible.
And, skipping TV altogether, live local streaming, seems possible and monetizable, too: Let the viewers create the content on the spot. Just pick and choose.
Another live stream Roker Media is involved with is “Joy Story,” a kind of happy-news report that shows up every Thursday. Coming soon is something called “Fashion Bomb Live,” which, assuredly, is more about fashion and lifestyle that ordnance.
When I talked to him a month or so ago, Armstrong said he expected each show would last 40 minutes or so, funded by product integrations.
It seems pie-in-the-sky. But in the digital realm, what seems wildly ambitious actually might be far-sighted. That’s what all of the front shows try to sell.
pj@mediapost.com