Automated Broadcast

Run scheduled video broadcasts - news roundups, daily briefings, market updates. The HeyGen API generates each clip on a cron schedule from fresh data inputs.

The Problem

Publishing regular video content — daily news roundups, weekly company updates, recurring educational series — is unsustainable without a production team. But consistency is what builds an audience.

How It Works

Schedule triggers → Aggregate content → LLM writes script → Video Agent renders → Auto-distribute

A fully automated pipeline that runs on a schedule, collects fresh content from your sources, generates a video, and delivers it to your audience — no human in the loop.

Build It

1. Set up content aggregation

   Pull content from whatever sources feed your broadcast.

   import requests
   from datetime import datetime
   
   def aggregate_content():
       stories = []
   
       # RSS feeds
       import feedparser
       feed = feedparser.parse("https://news.ycombinator.com/rss")
       for entry in feed.entries[:5]:
           stories.append({
               "title": entry.title,
               "summary": entry.get("summary", ""),
               "source": "Hacker News",
               "url": entry.link,
           })
   
       # APIs (example: your internal metrics)
       metrics = requests.get("https://api.yourapp.com/weekly-stats").json()
       stories.append({
           "title": f"This week: {metrics['new_users']} new users, {metrics['revenue']} revenue",
           "summary": f"Growth of {metrics['growth_pct']}% week over week",
           "source": "Internal",
       })
   
       return stories
   
   stories = aggregate_content()
   
2. Generate a video script with an LLM

   import anthropic
   
   client = anthropic.Anthropic()
   
   story_text = "\n".join(
       f"- {s['title']} ({s['source']}): {s['summary']}"
       for s in stories
   )
   
   message = client.messages.create(
       model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
       max_tokens=1500,
       messages=[{
           "role": "user",
           "content": f"""Create a HeyGen Video Agent prompt for a 60-second
   news/update video.
   
   Date: {datetime.now().strftime('%B %d, %Y')}
   
   Stories to cover:
   {story_text}
   
   Structure:
   - Intro (5s): "Here's your [daily/weekly] update for [date]"
   - Stories (45s): Cover the top 3 stories with text overlays for key stats
   - Sign-off (10s): "That's your update. See you [tomorrow/next week]."
   
   Tone: Authoritative but approachable. Clean, news-desk style background.
   Keep pacing brisk — one story every 15 seconds."""
       }],
   )
   video_prompt = message.content[0].text
   
3. Generate the video

   resp = requests.post(
       "https://api.heygen.com/v3/video-agents",
       headers={
           "X-Api-Key": HEYGEN_API_KEY,
           "Content-Type": "application/json",
       },
       json={"prompt": video_prompt},
   )
   video_id = resp.json()["data"]["video_id"]
   
   # Poll until complete
   import time
   while True:
       status = requests.get(
           f"https://api.heygen.com/v3/videos/{video_id}",
           headers={"X-Api-Key": HEYGEN_API_KEY},
       ).json()["data"]
   
       if status["status"] == "completed":
           video_url = status["video_url"]
           break
       elif status["status"] == "failed":
           raise Exception(f"Video failed: {status.get('failure_message')}")
   
       time.sleep(15)
   
4. Distribute automatically

   Deliver the video to your audience wherever they are.

   # Telegram
   import telegram
   bot = telegram.Bot(token=TELEGRAM_TOKEN)
   bot.send_video(chat_id=CHANNEL_ID, video=video_url, caption="Daily Update")
   
   # Slack
   requests.post(SLACK_WEBHOOK, json={
       "text": f"Daily update is ready: {video_url}",
   })
   
   # Email (via your ESP)
   send_email(
       to=subscriber_list,
       subject=f"Your Daily Update — {datetime.now().strftime('%B %d')}",
       html=f'<a href="{video_url}"><img src="{thumbnail_url}"></a>',
   )
   
5. Schedule it

   Run the pipeline on a schedule using cron, GitHub Actions, or a cloud function.

   # .github/workflows/daily-broadcast.yml
   name: Daily Video Broadcast
   on:
     schedule:
       - cron: '0 17 * * 1-5'  # 5 PM UTC, weekdays
   jobs:
     broadcast:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         - run: pip install -r requirements.txt
         - run: python broadcast.py
           env:
             HEYGEN_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.HEYGEN_API_KEY }}
             ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
             TELEGRAM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TELEGRAM_TOKEN }}
   

Real-World Example

STUDIO 47, a German broadcaster, reported these results after adopting HeyGen for automated video production (via HeyGen customer stories):

• Significantly faster content creation
• 24/7 production capability
• Substantial cost reduction vs traditional production
• Expanded into multilingual content that wasn’t feasible before

Resilient Delivery

Build fallbacks for when things go wrong:

def deliver(video_url, caption):
    try:
        # Try primary: send video by URL
        bot.send_video(chat_id=CHANNEL_ID, video=video_url, caption=caption)
    except Exception:
        try:
            # Fallback: download and upload as file
            video_data = requests.get(video_url).content
            bot.send_video(chat_id=CHANNEL_ID, video=video_data, caption=caption)
        except Exception:
            # Last resort: send text with link
            bot.send_message(chat_id=CHANNEL_ID, text=f"{caption}\n\n{video_url}")

Broadcast Types

Type	Schedule	Content source	Duration
Daily news	Every morning	RSS, APIs, web scrape	45–60s
Weekly roundup	Monday morning	Internal metrics + industry news	90s
Product changelog	Each release	Git commits, release notes	30–45s
Company all-hands	Weekly/monthly	Meeting notes, updates	60–90s
Social digest	Daily	Trending topics in your niche	30s

Variations

• Multi-language: Generate once, translate for regional audiences
• Different avatars per topic: Use different presenters for different content categories
• Audience segmentation: Generate different versions for different subscriber segments

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Next Steps

Content Repurposing

Repurpose existing content instead of aggregating new content.

Docs to Video

Trigger video generation from code changes instead of a schedule.