‘Aliens’ Cast to Celebrate 30th Anniversary with YouTube Mobile Comic Con Live Stream (EXCLUSIVE)
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Aliens,” 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is heading down to Comic Con in San Diego this week. And for fans who can’t make the trip in person, the studio is taking to the internet, with a twist: Fox is for the first time using YouTube’s new mobile live streaming service to let the original cast of the movie talk to a global audience.
YouTube announced its mobile live streaming service last month, and has thus far only made it available to a few select partners. The “Aliens” live stream actually marks the first time for a Hollywood studio to use YouTube mobile live streaming.
“Aliens” officially debuted 30 years ago this Monday. On Saturday afternoon, Fox will bring original cast members Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn and Carrie Henn as well as director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd to Comic Con in San Diego for a 30th anniversary panel.
But in the early afternoon, before the cast even goes on stage for their panel, they’re going to use the YouTube app to answer fan questions. Fox is doing both the panel and the live stream to promote an “Aliens” 30th anniversary limited edition Blu-ray and digital release, which are both slated for September 13.
YouTube for its part plans to make its mobile live streaming service more widely available soon, but hasn’t committed to a release date yet. YouTube has integrated live streaming directly into its regular mobile app, meaning that users will eventually be able to go live with the same app they already use to watch YouTube videos.
Of course, YouTube is a bit late to the party with mobile live streaming: Twitter has been offering live streaming with its Periscope service for a little over a year, and Facebook has been putting lots of energy — and dollars paid to select content creators — behind its own live streaming service.
However, YouTube claims that it’s service is “faster and more reliable than anything else out there” — and having over a billion monthly active users should help the Google-owned video service to get a keg up in the live streaming race as well.
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