YouTube Launches Live Streaming Page

YouTube, the video site owned by Google, on Friday unveiled a page highlighting live programming and said users have asked for more live streams.

“With over 2 billion views a day, it’s easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past,” it said in a blog post. “But you’ve told us you want more – and that includes events taking place right now. In response, we’ve live streamed a number of popular concerts, sporting events, and interviews, but primarily on a one-off basis.”

The initial rollout of YouTube Live will “integrate live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time,” the video site said.

Certain YouTube partners will start to stream live content on YouTube. “The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead,” the site said. “In order to ensure a great live stream viewing experience, we’ll roll this offering out incrementally over time.”

Users can subscribe to their favorite YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams.

Among Friday’s live offerings is a 7pm presentation of The DigiTour: Live from Google HQ!, described as “the first ever large-scale 6 week national tour bringing your favorite YouTube musicians to you.”