Can you sync a livestream (audio/video) to a live TV broadcast?

Question

Does anyone know of a way to sync a livestream to a live Television broadcast?

Since most people watch TV via DVR and the networks have delays built in as well is it possible to sync a livestream to a TV broadcast. I assume it would need a client side live player that could do the syncing by hearing the audio on the TV broadcast? Rifftrax (http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax-player) does this with MP3 DVD commentary and syncs it to the DVD via the audio.

Could this be done live? Any thoughts or ideas would be awesome!

Answer 1

The internet stream would have to be several seconds ahead of the TV stream so that the player had some wiggle room to work in. This requires a delay on the TV end, which is not always there. You would have to be in control of both broadcasts.

If you could do that, then I suppose it would be possible to analyze the audio coming in, for sync. Depending on how you do this, it could be much easier to take captions instead.

I also think your idea of most people watch TV via DVR is a bit inflated. Even when you look at the Nielson numbers on this, keep in mind that many (most?) markets are not metered markets, and people write all kinds of things down on surveys. "Hey, it's asking about our DVR... we've got one of those right?"