Video isn’t just on the desktop anymore, as viewers increasingly find themselves watching on mobile phones and tablets. To meet that demand, social video startup Spreecast is now available on more devices and platforms, with the launch of an iPhone app and streaming via mobile web.
Spreecast has a platform that allows users to broadcast live streaming video together. The idea is to provide a way for broadcasters to easily interact with each other, and tools which enable them to communicate directly with viewers who are tuning in, and enabling them to join the broadcast as well.
To date, most of that interaction has happened in PC-based browsers, where viewers could watch streams, chat with broadcasters, and pose questions to them either by text or video. Viewers can also share what they’re watching on Facebook, Twitter, or by email. The player is viewable both on the Spreecast site itself, as well as an embeddable player on partner sites.
But the company is making a big push to make its broadcasts available on mobile devices. To that end, it’s just released a native iPhone application, as well as mobile web capabilities for streaming on iOS and Android phones and tablets. The new capabilities will allow users to stream Spreecast videos in their mobile web browsers via HTML5, increasing potential viewership of users on the go.
Its iPhone app goes a step further, with a lot more functionality for viewers. They can not only watch streams, but also participate via text chat. Users will also have social sharing features available. While not in the current iPhone build, Spreecast plans to build capabilities that would allow iPhone users to also broadcast from their own mobile phones. In the next few months, it also expects to roll out Android mobile phone and tablet apps.
That’ll provide greater potential for partners using the platform to reach audiences, regardless of the device they’re using. Media companies like Viacom, Disney, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times leverage Spreecast for their broadcasts as a way to interact with viewers and provide context around current events.
Spreecast was founded by StubHub co-founder and investor Jeff Fluhr back in 2011. Since then, it’s raised $11 million in funding from investors that include Meakem Becker Venture Capital, GGV Capital, and MentorTech Ventures, among others. The startup, which is headquartered in San Francisco, has about 20 employees.