In addition to earlier reports that YouTube will drop $US100 million on original video content, they’re also going to broadcast more live content to us all with their new YouTube Live service.
Today we’re announcing the initial roll out of YouTube Live, which will integrate live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time. This begins with a new YouTube Live browse page (www.youtube.com/live), where you can always find the most compelling live events happening on YouTube and add events to your calendar. Subscribe to your favourite YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams on your customised homepage.
But don’t think of this as another Ustream or Justin.TV competitor where you’re treated to a bunch of randoms ranting at webcams and streaming blacked out sporting events. YouTube will only offer the technology to certain partners “in good standing”, and from the sounds of it, they also want their live content to have a polished, professional feel to it. For now, that means concerts, interviews and probably presidential addresses regarding whatever crisis du jour Obama is dealing with.
Hopefully, it will also mean sporting events (that people actually want to see), movie premieres (kinda like this one), and maybe even breaking news webcasts. The possibilities excite me. [YouTube]