Everybody’s moving in the online business, as it has become one of the strongest markets in the overall economy. And when you’re planning to combine news with social media, the future looks bright. That’s what the Huffington Post and AOL thought when making plans for launching a live streaming network.
On Thursday, at AOL’s Manhattan headquarters, media had a preview of the Huffington Post Streaming Network which will be launched this summer. The network will combine video, news and social media to the purpose of streaming news video live 12 hours a day on weekdays and 16 hours a day starting 2013.
As stated by Huffington, the upcoming network will “live on every platform – computer, smartphone, tablet, Over-the-Top TV- with the goal of creating the most social video experience anywhere”.
The Huffington Post Streaming Network will be webcast from studios in New York and Los Angeles, not to mention a satellite studio in Washington. All operations to which AOL has committed 100 employees.
A blog post writes the network is going to “be built around segments spotlighting the biggest, hottest, most engaging stories HuffPost is covering at any given moment and using them as the jumping-off points for conversations, commentary, and comedy”.
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, HuffPost co-founder Arianna Huffington and network chief Roy Sekoff called the Huffington Post Streaming Network a “game-changing” idea. The hope is that the network will engage the audience and boom as a platform for online conversations.
“People aren’t interested in being talked at anymore – they want to be part of the conversation” and that’s where the live streaming network should step in. “A big part of what HuffPost Streaming Network will do is help facilitate those conversations. That’s why one of our mottos is Conversations Start Here”.
Roy Sekoff talked about the network as a “never-ending talk show” intended to “mirror the Internet experience”.
But the success of the network is mainly based on investors. So far, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters joined the project. And AOL’s cut was surely nowhere near insignificant, Roy Sekoff only stating it was “substantial”.
Earlier this week, AOL reported its fourth quarter results, showing a lower income, but a rise of 10 percent in ad revenue.
