Newspaper to Broadcast Games Live

New technology offered by Facebook allows something previously impossible without spending tens of millions of dollars. Facebook Live, which was launched for the general public on Jan. 28, 2016 allows anyone with a smart phone to broadcast from his cellphone live worldwide.
Previously, a television broadcaster would have had to spend tens of millions of dollars to set up a worldwide broadcast system, involving cameras, studios, uplinks, satellites, and much more.
By July 2016, the two newspapers published at that time by Community Press, LLC — Central City News and Capital City News — began regularly broadcasting live on Facebook. One of the first broadcasts was of the funeral procession of East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputy Brad Garafola.
That broadcast garnered 4,300 viewers, and the staff at the newspapers was shocked, because there had been no promotion of the live broadcast and because very few people at the time even knew what Facebook Live was.
Over the past nine months, the Central City News and its sister newspaper, the Capital City News, have broadcast more than 40 events on Facebook Live. The audience continues to grow. An ordinary event normally draws 3,000 to 5,000 viewers but some events draw far more.
The largest audience so far was the Central City News’ coverage of the State Championship baseball game between Central and West Monroe. It drew 93,478 viewers live and on replays. Central City News editor Woody Jenkins said these numbers would far exceed numbers on many national cable channels.
The largest audience for Capital City News was a live video tour of Istrouma High School showing the school under construction.  In the first two days, it was viewed 23,000 times, was shared 371 times, and had 395 comments.
The extraordinary interest in Central sports has led the Central City News to make a commitment to broadcast all Central High School games this season live on Facebook.
To watch the games live, go to Central City News on Facebook at game time, which is 7 p.m. on Friday nights, during the season.
Most Facebook Live coverage by Central City News and Capital City News is announced on those Facebook pages a few minutes before the coverage begins.
Now with the launch of Community Press’ new newspaper, the Istrouma Journal, a new Facebook page will go online entitled Istrouma Journal. It will cover news of interest in North Baton Rouge live.

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