YouTube announced yesterday in a post on The Official YouTube Blog that it will begin a limited trial of a new live video-streaming feature with just four of its partners – Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom, and Young Hollywood. The trial is schedule to begin at 8:00 AM Pacific Time — 11:00 AM Eastern Time.
YouTube Product Manager Joshua Siegel and YouTube Product Marketing Manager Christopher Hamilton explain:
“This new platform integrates live streaming directly into YouTube channels; all broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera. Included in the test is a ‘Live Comments’ module which lets you engage with the broadcaster and the broader YouTube community. For the purpose of the trial, this offering will only be available today and tomorrow. Based on the results of this initial test, we’ll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide.”
Thanks to partnerships with the White House, U2, Indian Premier League, E3, and more, YouTube has been able to broadcast several events live such as Indian Premier League Cricket matches, speeches by President Obama, an Alicia Keys concert, a U2 concert, live coverage of E3 2010 Expo, an Arcade Fire concert, and more.
This move, of course, comes as no surprise to us. We have seen some evidence in the past, which lead us to believe that YouTube was indeed working on a live video-streaming platform. The new feature will definitely put YouTube in direct competition with live video-streaming services such as Livestream, UStream, and Justin.tv. However, YouTube has a huge advantage, given that it’s the most popular video-sharing website in the world.
YouTube Testing Live Video-Streaming Trail Below: