YouTube won’t be going live any time soon

Posted August 14, 2008 at 02:54 PM by Jodie Andrefski

Section: Web, Websites, Online Music/Video, Google

Despite previous statements declaring that their online service would be offering live video streaming some time this year, a source inside now states that YouTube won’t be going live after all. There goes the business plans of several planning to make a buck off the live streaming idea, like the somewhat cult-popular lifecast justin.tv. Some outsiders have thought this was the next expected step for YouTube, being that they make a killing in the market for pre-recorded Web video. Even Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, lent plausibility to the leap to live streaming when the idea first hit the public’s ear by telling Pop 17’s Sarah Meyer’s “Live video is something we always wanted to do but haven’t had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to launch something this year.“  Well, that was in February, and it isn’t happening, and sources say it won’t be happening next year either.

It’s said that Google never even actually considered the idea. That although the idea was discussed after Chen made his rather pie-in-the-sky statement, the whole thing was put to rest for several reasons. The main reason being that it would add in a major way to Google’s infrastructure and bandwidth costs during a time when it was trying to justify the almost $2 billion it paid for the company would pay off.  YouTube executives estimate that if only 10% of users use live streaming, they would have to add 20-25% to it’s already enormous server and bandwidth infrastructure just to support it. And since they don’t make as much in advertising for live streaming as they do on conventional web sites…what do you have? Major investment with minimal near-term return. Probably isn’t making them run right out and start the streaming.

Another major factor is the whole nightmare of do they really want to open the door to a possible new legal fiasco. They are still in the uproar with Viacom over copyright issues. How do they prevent things like this once they go live?

Yahoo went in early on live streaming, and it doesn’t seem to be doing them any golden fleece favors. The top viewed broadcast only has about one hundred viewers. Nothing to really broadcast home about. Looks like YouTube may have the right idea, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Via [silicon alley insider]