Some rumours were circulating last week that YouTube might be about to announce live streams. A screenshot showing a ‘livwe stream’ icon seemed to point a new feature but apparently is only part of the producer account of certain channels and not viewable by the public…which, for now, is very sensible.
YouTube are constantly battling with copyright issues, so opening up live streaming to the general public would seem slightly suicidal, however there is a strong argument for them to work with more organisations such as sports teams, fashion and entertainment brands to give them this option in their channels.
You Tube have been getting into streaming Live Music and live sport in the past year, and I would expect to see the trend continue. Obviously there is broadcast rights and copyright redtape that would stretch around the globe, but with connectivity and device capability increasing rapidly there is going to be more and more opportunity to put live events to a global audience.
Facebook has started to integrate live streaming apps and there is already the likes Ustream and Live Stream (who have been doing some stuff with fashion brands recently) for raw live streaming so there are options for the types of organization or brand that has both ownershjip over live content and fans willing to chew it up. YouTube would do well to get in on that action…and will almost certainly give the others a headache when they do.
