I have a friend who is an ardent fan of the American rock star Bruce Springsteen. Recently, he shared an interesting story that highlights the convergence of mobile and media - i.e., capable mobile devices, social media, and the heightened interest in both user-generated and corporate-sponsored live video streaming. At a small venue in Pittsburgh, PA earlier this month, Springsteen performed an intimate concert for the lucky few able to get tickets to the exclusive event. My friend, unfortunately, was not among those lucky fans. However, thanks to a resourceful fan at the concert equipped with a video-enabled smartphone, instant communication via Twitter and a live streaming website, my friend was able to enjoy the concert experience as if he were actually there in person.
My friend was visiting family at the time of the concert, but his extensive Springsteen Twitter network quickly alerted him to a bitly link to a live concert feed from the venue. Within seconds, he was connected remotely to the Ustream-hosted video feed (www.ustream.com). Excited about the concert and wishing other family members could enjoy it as well, he then deftly shifted from watching on his iPhone to watching on his relative's 3G-equipped laptop connected to an HDTV screen and stereo system. For the next few hours, everyone was able to rock to a mobile broadband-enabled concert experience.
While short-form, on-demand video streaming continues to be the dominant form of Internet video consumption, the live-stream video market is in the early stages of an upward trajectory. This content form, not surprisingly, reflects a myriad of market forces driving a seemingly infinite range of consumer interests and commercial prerequisites. For example, while online auto enthusiasts partook of the live HD-streamed Internet launch of Chevrolet's all-new Malibu earlier this year (an industry "first" according to the GM press release), a much larger group of Internet video consumers (by an order of magnitude) intently watched live, around-the-clock video coverage of a family of bald eagles in Decorah, Iowa (the most-watched live Ustream channel at approximately 100 million views during May, 2011). Regardless of whether you consider the big, mainstream events (e.g., 72 million total YouTube live streams for this year's Royal Wedding) or the small events like my friend's concert experience, they all add up to more demand for network capacity. Given that a significant proportion of this type of video is now originating from (and often streaming to) mobile devices, this trend portends additional sources of congestion in mobile networks - and especially at the network access edge.
Among the market forces driving this live-streaming phenomena are several user-generated aggregation sites including Ustream, Livestream, Justin.tv and YouTube. All the top live entertainment, news and sports sites offer live-streamed content too: Sky TV's Sky Go broadcasts of English football matches; BBC's iPlayer-based live streaming of newscasts; and ESPN3's live-streaming of basketball, soccer and baseball games. According to their recent corporate blog post, Justin.tv pushes at peak usage about 250 Gbps of video (the equivalent of 23,936 standard DVDs per hour) to over 30 million viewers. They also claim their iPhone and Android applications have been downloaded a collective 4.5 million times. The convergence of these broadcast platforms with live-streaming and social media (e.g., Ustream's Facebook application that enables live streaming from your Facebook page) will contribute to the further evolution of data traffic patterns and put yet further demands on mobile network capacity.
As the live-stream market picks up, mobile operators need to prepare for this dynamic shift in traffic patterns and subscriber viewing habits (remember: my friend's Springsteen video stream was delivered from that nearby 3G base-station for approximately two hours!). Mobile broadband optimization in the Core and Access networks will be critical to an operator's ability not only to deliver but also to capitalize on consumers' growing desire for live-stream content. If operators hope to more effectively monetize their networks - particularly as it relates to their highest-value subscribers - then traffic optimization and better conservation of network resources will be critical to delivering the differentiated services, consistent service quality and capacity needed to attract new subscribers and mitigate churn along the "Thunder Road" of mobile broadband.