'We are fearless in experimentation and we move quickly': Facebook Live at CBC News

Credit: Image by Vladimir Arndt on Shutterstock

CBC News is no stranger to broadcasting live, but when Facebook announced the ability for publishers to livestream on its platform, with the potential to reach an unlimited number of people around the world, the Canadian broadcasting service jumped straight in, and has since produced hundreds of live videos.

Brodie Fenlon, senior director of digital news at CBC, told Journalism.co.uk that CBC News has been experimenting for months with different ways of using Facebook Live to best engage with its audience, from streaming conferences and breaking news as it happens to holding conversational question and answer sessions with reporters, guests and experts out in the field.

"We are fearless in experimentation and we move quickly – I think that's the key," he said.

"We think the best Facebook Live experiences are ones where you're either bringing the audience a news moment that won't be replicated easily or where a presenter is able to provide the audience with a higher level of context and analysis surrounding a news event – and the gold standard are when those two are combined."

Indeed, Fenlon explained that although there is a temptation for news organisations to shovel live video onto the platform to gain reach, it is unwise to do so in the long run for those that wish to give real value to viewers and keep them returning to their live streams.

"Everybody has the ability to Facebook Live, but what we can offer the audience that someone on the street can't is a rich understanding of the story and years of knowledge and journalism built around it," he said.

CBC News has found this type of interactive coverage to be a hit with its audience, offering viewers not only an easy way to get the news instantly, but a chance to get behind the scenes of a news story and engage with journalists in a more personal manner.

"We've done several experiments with traditional radio broadcasts streaming to Facebook live – in fact at one point in early days, the transmission tower of one of the small town radio stations went down so they took to Facebook Live to get the morning radio programme on the air," said Fenlon.

CBC also used the platform to let viewers see radio being made the day Prince died. This enabled the team to expand its coverage whilst opening its doors for audiences to see more of the production process.

"The audience on Facebook could see the host and the show through multiple cameras while it was broadcast out on the radio at the same time, while the social media team in that newsroom complemented the experience by interacting with the Facebook audience in the comments thread," he said.

"It was a really neat example of marrying two distinct media lines into a brand new experience."

CBC tends to let the audience dictate the length of each news stream, looking for how many people are joining in to watch or how many are contributing comments. CBC has also used this interaction with the audience to guide its development of the streams.

"The audience was pretty central in helping us shape our focus and best practices," said Fenlon.

He explained that, when CBC News first started out on Facebook Live, they had feedback from the audience highlighting problems with the audio, or how the camera was too shaky. The staff would take the comments on-board for the next streams, acquiring and testing out more equipment to improve the broadcasts.

"Publishers need to be OK with making mistakes, and when they do, simply being transparent about it with the audience – they appreciate that you're learning.

"But you need to raise the quality as fast as you can because there is an expectation that we're going to be better than the person on the street with their phone," he said.

CBC News found that having multiple people working on a stream at one time helps them avoid common issues like the presenter not realising they are live, or forgetting to constantly refer to what the live stream is all about for viewers dipping in and out.

The audience was pretty central in helping us shape our focus and best practicesBrodie Fenlon, CBC

"We found the best way to manage it is to have somebody shooting the live stream and somebody else in front of the camera. Then we have another person managing the conversation in the comments thread and picking out the best questions to send directly to the reporter," he said.

CBC News gets hundreds of viewers to their streams, but Fenlon pointed out it is currently a challenge to alert the audience to a live stream, since Facebook changed the settings on the platform to only alert people with their notifications turned on.

"I think Facebook actually has to make it easier for publishers like us to signal what's coming and to allow the audience to choose and almost schedule their experience – I think that's one of the big missing pieces right now," he said.

"It's difficult to come into a live without stumbling upon it. There has to be some way that I can tell the audience 'here's what's happening today on our scheduled Facebook Lives', and some way for me as a user to check mark the ones that I want to get a notification for, the ones that I want to watch for later.

"But at the same time, this is different to television and has to be programmed differently in terms of editorial content," he added.

This piece is part of our Facebook Live series. Check out or previous articles about Facebook Live at ABC News, and at the International Business Times.

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