YouTube on Friday launched YouTube Live, a homepage for live content on the site and a new live-streaming platform.
YouTube has more than two billion viewers a day and users upload more than 34 hours of content a minute. Internet users major online media consumption is via YouTube. However, everything users watch on YouTube is from the past.
YouTube has earlier tested out a live, streaming server by streaming a number of popular concerts, sporting events, and interviews, but primarily on a one-off basis. That all changes today with YouTube LIVE, which integrates live streaming capabilities directly into the popular video content site.
YouTube has created a dedicated page to showcase all the live shows happening around the site. It features the most popular live events happening. There is also a section for scheduled events and users can add those to an event calendar to alert them when their favorite YouTube LIVE show is on. The video-sharing site also allows users to subscribe to favorite live streaming partners and be notified of upcoming events on the customized homepage.
Currently this service will only be available to select live streaming partners, but will soon be rolling out in a beta program.
YouTube plans to offer about 20 premium channels, each showcasing 5 to 10 hours of original, broadcast-caliber programming a week, by the end of the year.
