This morning we broadcast on Twitch.tv for the first time in years. In addition to the normal sunrise safari guided by Lauren and Steve on YouTube, Periscope and Facebook WE also broadcast an additional show from our Johannesburg control room hosted by Fikile ‘Fix’ Moeti and Michael Catterson, with our own Trishala Naidu providing her knowledge and expertise about Djuma and the Maasai Mara.
The team in Johannesburg were watching the safari from Djuma just like you, but they also had the ability to look at a variety of different sightings from our archive and discuss these again.
The idea is not to replace the daily shows that WE broadcast from Djuma, but to create a new “downstream show” that is all about a few people sitting and discussing what we are watching aimed at a new audience on Twitch in the Just Chatting category: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Just%20Chatting
WE could use your help later tonight [if you are in the US] which will be early tomorrow morning if you are in Africa, Europe or the Middle East and tomorrow afternoon if you are in Asia. We are going to do another 3-hour test of this concept [a bunch of folk chatting about the safari] from 05h00 to 08h00 CAT [10 PM to 1 AM EST, 03:00 to 06:00 GMT and 11 AM to 2 PM CST]. As we are new on Twitch people there need to still find us. Twitch lists broadcasts on the basis of how many people are watching; the ones with the highest numbers first. This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. You could help us ‘prime the pump’ as it were by logging in to Twitch and watch [while you are watching the normal safari on YouTube, Periscope or Facebook]. That would boost our numbers, move us up the list and, hopefully, become visible to the people on Twitch. Hopefully, some of those will then come to watch too, and further increase viewer numbers. To find us on Twitch look for ‘ourwildearth’, not ‘wildearth’ here https://www.twitch.tv/ourwildearth. Once there, you should see a recording of the first test show we did today.
Now you need to be warned this show is highly experimental and is aimed at exploring how a safari show might be made entertaining to a completely new and different audience. A Twitch audience who usually watch gaming and similar type shows that could not be more different than our normal safaris. We have told Fix, Michael and Trish that there are no rules and WE want to see where this conversation goes. It’s NOT aimed at kids and there will be no kids watching. So please be prepared for possible swearing and more adult subject matter. If you think you might be offended by this, WE strongly urge you to watch the normal safari show on YouTube, Periscope or Facebook. But, if you’re interested to see ‘something completely different’ and want to help increase our viewer numbers come and have a look.
