Youtube has begun allowing certain members to stream live videos online, this select group features mainly partners of the company. This is a huge change in the functionality of the site, which up until now, only gave users the chance to upload videos which have already been created. Now, certain members will be able to simply press a button and stream live video to the world. YouTube hasn"t said how many live castors it will allow, although they have explained they intend "to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead."
According to CNET, YouTube wrote on the company blog, "In order to ensure a great live stream viewing experience, we"ll roll this offering out incrementally over time."
In 2008 YouTube tested out streaming live content and said they planned to have it available by the end of the year, although they ended up only using it to live-stream some of their events, such as press conferences.
In September of last year, YouTube gave live-stream privileges to other partners including Next New Networks, which Youtube now owns. Adding a live stream service mean that YouTube will now be able to compete with similar services from sites such as, Bright cove, Ustream, justin.tv and Livestream.
This new feature is likely to help YouTube with it"s plan of bringing more original content to it"s programing.
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