Dive Brief:
- Live streaming has come to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade through an NBCUniversal/Verizon partnership, according to Variety.
- The live stream represents the first time viewers can find the parade on anything other than linear TV since the event began broadcasting in 1952. For the show, Verizon is implementing five cameras around the parade so it can be shown in 360-degree video.
- The stream will appear on Verizon’s YouTube page as part of the marketing partnership.
Dive Insight:
Events that are considered "destination viewing" like sports, presidential debates and now the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade were once limited to the domain of linear and pay cable TV. Live streaming video in 2016 has flipped that reality on its head, drawing viewership away from set-top boxes and making serious digital inroads into the real-time space through media deals on online platforms like Twitter.
The partnership between NBC and Verizon is a recognition that a significant, and presumably young-skewing, audience either can’t or won’t watch video content on traditional TV any longer, making digital offerings a necessity.
“We’ve never really focused on an alternate viewing experience,” Alison Tarrant, executive vice president of client partnerships at NBCUniversal, told Variety. “This is a big step for this broadcast.”
The immersive video technology will presumably create a more immersive viewing experience than a flat 2D broadcast, and the stream will also implement pop-up graphics that explain factoids about the parade in real-time.
