C-Span Delivers on Sit-In, Even With Cameras Off

Story by NY Times
Written by Nicholas Fandos and Mike Isaac

WASHINGTON — C-Span knew it had a problem.

Democrats had unexpectedly sat down in the middle of the House of Representatives chamber to demand a vote on gun control legislation, and with the body officially in recess, C-Span, the cable network known for “gavel to gavel” coverage of Congress, had no means to cover it.

Then it found an unlikely source: the social media feeds of House members who had turned to Periscope, a live video-streaming app, and Facebook Live.

“As soon as we knew it was available, we went for it,” Terry Murphy, C-Span’s vice president for programming, said on Thursday after a short night’s sleep. “We didn’t know when we got into it that we would be doing it for 24 hours. There just wasn’t much time to debate it.”

So began what was arguably the most memorable 24-hour period the network has seen in years, one that Mr. Murphy estimated had probably set a record for continuous broadcast of a social media feed and that others suggested amounted to something of a declaration of independence from congressional landlords, who control the TV cameras inside the Senate and House chambers.

But it was perhaps even more momentous for Periscope, which debuted just over a year ago after being acquired by Twitter.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Twitter messages that one or both of the live video streams broadcast by Representatives Scott Peters and Eric Swalwell of California embedded had already been viewed more than a million times, according to the company.

“We always told ourselves that if we were successful, we were building a tool to give a voice to the voiceless,” Kayvon Beykpour, co-founder and chief executive of Periscope, said in an interview. “It’s showing you the truth from different people’s perspectives. It’s a really raw way of experiencing what you watch.

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