Periscope Enables Web Replay

(Originally published on the PNConnect blog)

Periscope announced yesterday that livestream videos could be replayed on the web 24 hours after they ended, mimicking functionality that was previously exclusive to its iOS app. Aside from the ability to view livestreams in a browser as they’re happening, this is the first big web-based new feature the app has rolled out. And it has me thinking about what could be next.

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Right now there are no web profiles for Periscope accounts. So you can’t go to Periscope.tv/USERNAME and follow an account or view their archives. This makes a certain amount of sense: A key aspect of Periscope (and Meerkat as well) is that these videos expire, so it’s not like people would be able to scroll through archives of past posts. But there are things web profiles for Periscopes would be able to do while still holding true to the 24-hour rule.

Some ideas:

  • Featured Video: Similar to YouTube’s channel trailer, this could be a single, evergreen video that shows off the value proposition of the profile in some way. Put a 30-second time limit on it and force the person or brand that manages the profile to provide a quick reason why people should follow them/it and what people can expect.
  • Upcoming Livestream Schedule: This is a simple idea, just showing a schedule — maybe up to a week in advance — of planned live videos. This can be as specific as is necessary, meaning it could be “X Time on Y Date From Z Location” or more broad as in “Watch for videos all weekend from X Conference.” Again, the idea here is to show people *why* they should be following the account.

It’s probably inevitable that web profiles in some form or another will happen at some point in the not too distant future. This is the path Vine, which is also owned by Twitter, took as they slowly moved from a mobile-only experience to one that increasingly embraced the web. I would expect that these sorts of features would be introduced alongside eventual integration between Periscope and Twitter’s ad units. Promoted Tweets that publicize an upcoming Periscope-streamed event could have a bigger impact if they included a link to the web profile where the stream will be viewable.
Until that time, it’s good that streams can be replayed on the web for 24 hours since it means brand publishers can resurface that stream after the initial broadcast at least once or twice for anyone who missed it initially.