How the Meerkat linkup with GoPro is going to lead to some extreme livestreaming

Meerkat announced at Vidcon last month their new capability to pair with a GoPro for mobile live streaming. This move could make a big change to their position in the fight with the Twitter owned live streaming app Periscope. For the moment, the feature is only available on iOS and only compatible with the GoPro Hero 3 range. Meerkat have said Android compatibility is in the pipeline and that GoPro Hero 4 support will be available in the next update.

When Meerkat was released in February of this year, it had a great reception and gained popularity very quickly. However, a few weeks after its release, Twitter cut off Meerkat’s access to its social graph and then acquired Periscope. This acquisition allowed Periscope users to have their live streams linked directly into Twitter. As soon as Periscope was released, Meerkat saw a big drop in users and traffic, with Periscope taking the lead.

So what does this development mean for mobile live streaming? This new move from Meerkat could bring them back to the forefront of the live streaming battle. The announcement at Vidcon last month should prove popular, the introduction of being able to use a third party camera is a big leap forward for the development of live mobile streaming. Not only is the introduction of an external camera a vast improvement, partnering with GoPro will be a big help to the app’s popularity and development. GoPro don’t just make one of the most versatile action cameras on the market, the company already has a huge creator community and following. With this partnership, Meerkat now has access to a much higher class of content than its competitors.

Will live streaming be the next big step up for action sports content? This development will hopefully bring extreme sports content, and other sports content, to life. Extreme sports content has a big place online, especially since the emergence of GoPro and other action cameras, professional and amateur creators alike are always uploading great content from skiing to surfing and mountain biking to skateboarding, the internet is flooded with great edits. The introduction of amateur level drones was the last big advancement in action sports content, allowing creators to capture great aerial footage at a relatively low cost.

Now with live streaming readily accessible, creators will be able to share their content and action sports activities in real time. The addition of a third party camera to the free live streaming service will surely work to help creators get more creative, giving more quality and versatility to their streams. With any luck, it won’t just be big brands and organisations producing interesting and exciting streams but everyday creators honing their skills on a new creative platform.

Recently GoPro has been seen joining with major events and broadcasters to stream big action events in real-time. GoPro has always been involved with action sports, whether its being the official camera partner of X Games or offering a side competition for the best footage from competitors at the World Surf League. More recently the camera giant has been branching out into other sports, the most recent of which its partnership with the Tour De France to provide highlights with some new exclusive rider views. Adding Meerkat into the mix is sure to mean some exciting live coverage of big sporting events both in action sports and other sports.

Although the battle is raging between Periscope and Meerkat they are not the only live streaming apps out there. The newest on the block is British rival MyEye, with support from it’s founding investor David Beckham. MyEye is a much smaller project than Periscope and Meerkat but offers some interesting features, which could help to bring it up to its competitors’ level and beyond. The app offers privacy settings based around geography, which could prove useful to big name users and rights holders, some of whom have been having issues with Periscope and Meerkat. MyEye is aimed at public figures like athletes and pop stars as a new way to build fan engagement.

For everyone who thought the live-streaming race was over, with Periscope as the victors, this new development has blown everything wide open. It is safe to say we can keep our eyes peeled for some very exciting events, content and developments in the world of mobile live-streaming. Especially with Facebook now entering the arena!

 

About author

Robbie Morgan
Robbie Morgan 1 posts

Robbie is a regular contributor to Digital Sport and works as Digital Media Editor at social video specialists CASTdigital.

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