Bring on the school holiday pageants, local baseball games and armchair poetry slams… YouTube today announced that it is expanding its live video services to the masses. Everyone who has a verified account can now stream live video on YouTube, and verified accounts can now create a Google+ Hangout on Air.
The company today has not given an update on how much take-up the live service has seen overall, but big-name, high-profile live events have proven to be major draws on the platform. The Red Bull Stratos Mission, for example, drew 8 million concurrent viewers.
Live events give Google a way to complement the role it plays as the archive of the long-tail and keeper of viral clips. “Appointment” viewing around live events presents specific kinds of advertising opportunities and helps YouTube position itself more securely as a TV alternative.
Whether that positioning can work in the context of long-tail content that may not attract that many concurrent users is another question. On the other hand, it presents particular opportunities for hyperlocal advertising that complements Google’s pitch as a one-stop marketing shop for smaller businesses.
The YouTube live video service has been in a “beta” mode for the — For more information read the original article here.
