Live Streaming: How Did We Get Here?

It’s no mystery that live streaming is now one of the most popular forms of marketing and getting your content out into the world. We know how to do it and what platforms are used today, but how did it all begin?

This post is all about telling the interesting story of live streaming, and how it has gotten to this level of success.

Live Streaming History - Timeline

Now, the first true live video stream was related to music. In June 1993, a band called Severe Tire Damage was made up of computer scientists and engineers, and they decided to perform a gig like usual. Their friends at Xerox Parc in California decided to try out something new; Using a network called Mbone to broadcast the gig live to all types of people all over the world. Seriously - this live stream was viewed all the way in Australia. 

This network could broadcast audio and video into your home, which was a big deal in the early 90s. If kids today saw the quality of it, they would not be impressed. They wouldn’t believe how pixelated and slow it used to be!

Fast forward a couple years to 1995, when ESPN was able to broadcast a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. This happened through RealNetworks’ media player RealPlayer, which was the first media player that was capable of live streaming content. A very exciting day for sports fans everywhere!

RealNetworks then created the first program to commercialize live streaming - RealVideo. 

In 1999, the government took live streaming for a spin. This was the first true instance of live streaming; George Washington University hosted a webcast with President Bill Clinton where he was able to have an online discussion with other participants, and users were able to send in comments and questions.

When YouTube was created in 2005 nobody knew how it would blow up in the following years, or how much it would promote the live streaming industry. YouTube Live was the first live streaming event by YouTube in 2008. After this and into the 2010s, people were not really utilizing live streaming until social media platforms started to promote it.

Justin.tv became Twitch.tv in 2011, the very well-known live streaming platform centered around video games. Twitch.tv has become incredibly popular among the gaming community and averages hundreds of millions of monthly viewers!

User playing video games online

Social media began taking advantage of live streaming down the road. Twitter acquired Periscope in 2015 which allowed users to begin streaming. A year later in 2016, Facebook and Instagram began offering live streaming capabilities to its users. 

Instagram Live

Who knew that a couple of buddies and a band gig broadcasted out as far as Australia would lead to what live streaming is today? 

Live video has dominated the internet ever since! It is only going to continue growing and expanding over the years, and Leaped is an example of that continued growth. Being able to cater to educators with this platform will without a doubt change the lives of these passionate individuals by giving them a louder voice and a much larger audience. 

We can’t wait to see what the future of live streaming holds!