YouTube Lowers Live Streaming Requirement!

YouTube on Friday opened the flood gates to shows in good standing and are allowing shows with a minimum of 100 subscribers to get access to their Live Streaming Platform.

It has only been a couple of months since they opened it to shows with 1000 subscribers. We all knew this was coming but it is really great news for podcasters that are doing live shows.

Lets talk about the impact here.. Companies like Ustream have their ProBroadcasting services where you can purchase up to 100 ad free hours for $99.00. While YouTube does not guarantee ad free streaming, so far their ads have been non-obtrusive.

One of the reasons I had stopped using Ustream as a primary streaming provider was that the ads in their “free streams” became intrusive. No one minds a company making money when they are providing a free service but the ads on Ustream were driving my audience away and was the #1 complaint for months.

On YouTube partner sites get to share in the revenue of any advertising run which incentives folks to start using YouTube as their primary live platform.

This change has to impact the bottom line of companies like Ustream, how will these companies survive this is my next question. The provided production tools Ustream provides may help, but it is obvious that YouTube understands where the media space is headed..

The best part about the YouTube Live experience is that you get to promote it on your own sites with the video embed, and you can cross promote your YouTube Channel. This is a win for content producers. See the other announcements YouTube made as well

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