By Tess Reidy
Now viewers around the world can join in the fun as summer events are streamed live
Back in the days when a live televised football match was a rarity, it was widely believed that the more football was shown live on TV, the fewer people would bother to go to a match. The opposite turned out to be true. Live coverage boomed and so did match attendances. Now a similar phenomenon seems to be happening with another British institution, the summer music festival.
In a bid to encourage people to attend the real thing, festivals such as Dekmantel in the Netherlands and The Social in Maidstone are broadcasting themselves on online channels such as Facebook Live, Boiler Room and BE AT TV. Even the Notting Hill carnival is getting in on the act this year, with 42 hours of live streaming planned for audiences around the world. […]
With many people watching streams on their laptops, festivals can reach an audience regardless of their travel, work or family commitments, and with the average four-day ticket costing around £163 (according to festicket.com), online viewing is making them accessible to those who would have been priced out. […]
Maurizio Vitale, founder of Movement Entertainment and Kappa FuturFestival, says that performances this summer from the likes of Derrick May, Kerri Chandler and Marco Carola reached between 37,000 and 290,000 viewers. Although Vitale says this model certainly helps to attract new audiences to the next editions of the festivals, it’s not the only way to reach new crowds. “Word of mouth will always be a strong tool to attract new potential customers,” he said.
Jake Bailey, head of marketing at The Social Festival UK, agreed. “In the past it has always been down to a lot of physical marketing as well as word of mouth with flyers, posters and billboards. Streaming is just another tool that’s used to market an event.”
The Guardian
14.08.2016
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