YouTube launches live streaming service

Google's YouTube online video site has launched a new live streaming functionality, allowing its partners to broadcast live events over the web to potentially huge audiences.

Last Friday, YouTube announced the launch of YouTube Live, integrating the live streaming capabilities it has been introducing to the site over the past year.

The service, at Youtube.com/live, will offer a range of the "most compelling live events", including concerts, sporting events and interviews.

YouTube Live will initially be made available under a beta, allowing YouTube partners with "accounts in good standing" to sign up and stream live content on the site. Eventually, YouTube wants to give "thousands of partners" a platform to stream live events from their channels.

The company has previously launched one-off live video streams, including an interview with US president Barack Obama and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Thomson Reuters is understood to be among the companies testing YouTube Live, while Stanford University is also experimenting with the service.

Live sport is expected to be one of the big drivers for YouTube's live streaming service, largely because it can command big enough audiences to attract advertisers.

Last year, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for live and on-demand rights to 60 games from the Indian Premier League.

Speaking to the Financial Times, YouTube product manager Josh Siegel said that the website was making a specific push for live sport content.

He added: "We're going to see a lot of activity in the sports area. We've been ramping up a big development team… and we expect to see that content coming on to the site."

The launch of live streaming comes just days after it [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] as part of plans to revamp the site for the emerging connected TV space. (from PCW)