CNBC entertains Wall Street celebrities, and Joe Scarborough charms Washington politicians. But Malcolm Harris is content to reach a much less attractive audience: shipping industry executives.
Since September, Harris – a former sports talk personality – has run “What The Truck?!?”, a three-times-week live show that sets the agenda in the world of logistics. Harris teams up with trucking tycoons as the news crawls beneath them. FreightWaves, the logistics news outlet behind his show, is discussing adding more live programming to its roster, according to Harris.
“This is how people get content today,” he says.
Morning shows on television now attract about half the audience they did fifteen years ago, and live broadcasters are keen to capture what has happened. While streaming experiments like Cheddar and CBSN launched in the mid-2010s, a new crop of creative cowboys are taking on the news giants by going smaller. Andrew Ross Sorkins specializes in creating brilliantly produced programming for narrow segments of the economy, on platforms like X, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Many of these products function as modern trade magazines. One offer targets car dealership owners. Another network, TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network), focuses on technology masters. And on March 8, Tinseltown will get its own sports center.
Warner-Belly will lead a weekly morning show about the workings of Hollywood. It’s an offshoot of Bailey’s popular meme page, Assistants vs. Agents, which recently live-streamed the awards show from the El Rey Theater. Bailey believes audiences are craving alternatives to social media. “People are now just chasing authenticity,” Bailey says. “In those moments in life, it’s not polished. It’s real and authentic.”
Bailey credits the three-hour-daily talk show TBPN, a Silicon Valley show Squawk box – While arousing his interest in live broadcasting. “They only care about serving that specific area,” Bailey says. “We look at that based on what we do as well. We’re only interested in serving entertainment professionals, or people who work in the entertainment industry, or students who want to break in.”
TBPN motivated others to join the live-streamed rodeo. Gino Shellenberger and Jack Westerkamp — who cover the advertising industry — are two such creatives. Today, the duo recaps industry news and interviews executives on Breaking and Entering, a popular Instagram account and podcast. They soon expect to launch a live show covering Madison Avenue, which they hope to broadcast three times a week.
“We’ve been friends our whole lives, so we have a really great chemistry with each other,” Westerkamp says. “That’s kind of our competitive advantage and we get the most out of that competitive advantage with live streaming.”
Although any creator can create an Instagram Live stream with an iPhone and light rings, the latest wave of news creators is prioritizing production quality. What delays Shellenberger and Westerkamp is that the only employee with live streaming experience is a 23-year-old who has streamed himself playing Call of duty In high school. They expect to produce live content once they are sure the technology won’t fail.
Bailey relies on an in-house team that has started streaming music festivals and DJ sets online. Previously Assistants vs. Agents produced a live show from the Gen Z-focused festival in November, where Bailey interviewed UTA executive and Gymnasium founder Adam Faze.
Since these specialized programs are free, the production budget is often covered by advertising. Like sporting events, these shows attract advertisers because of their unmissable quality, as well as their passionate and precisely targeted audience. “It’s like reading an ad that you can’t really skip,” says Dylan Abbruscato, who recently joined TBPN as president.
Some engagement comes from interactivity, which is what sets it apart from podcasting. Hays often responds directly to viewer comments during the broadcast. “I think being able to sit down with people, engage in a conversation, see it live, see it happening in front of you, makes you feel part of it,” Westerkamp says.
These offers don’t just disappear from the internet after the creators’ own versions of “Good Night and Good Luck.” There is a second window, which contains short clips spread on social networking sites. “More people watch the taping each day of the show than the live broadcast, which makes sense,” says TBPN co-host Geordie Hayes. “Only a few people will be available during the show.” Harris says about 40 percent of his audience watches live.
Many creators see live streaming as an effective way to build communities. Although an interview with a logistics technology executive won’t go viral like Mr. Beast, but niche content attracts discerning fans.
Just as John Malone’s fiber-optic pipes ushered in a “500-channel world,” as he called it, algorithm-driven live broadcasts are likely to continue to fuel niche streamers. During his career, Malone has amassed stakes in a mixture of networks, including QVC, Food Network and BET. Could one of these creators build Liberty Media for live streaming? Hayes has an idea for another project.
“I’ve said this a lot and no one has taken it up on me yet, except for TBPN Cooking,” Hayes says. “There’s a winning show to be made.”
