YouTube Live Rumors Surface As Google’s Answer To Twitch
YouTube may be taking a second stab at live streaming and eSports broadcasting with a revamped YouTube Live, if rumors are to be believed. The Google-owned video content site left a bitter taste in the mouth of many gamers and content creators in 2013, leading to the explosion of relative newcomer, Twitch. Talent acquisition by YouTube and whispers around the net have given rise to the belief that the site is in the processing of making a second attempt to gain back the audience it alienated.
Twitch.tv, the preferred site for gamers to livestream their content, accounts for more than 2 percent of the traffic on the internet during peak hours. That may not sound like an impressive statistic until you realize only a few sites have higher traffic stats, YouTube among the few. YouTube was in talks to buy Twitch back in May, which you can read elsewhere on the Inquisitr. The purchase fell through, mainly due to anti-trust concerns. Amazon picked up the company for $970 million in cash. Almost a year later, Google may be getting ready to show the world what they have been cooking up to take on Twitch.
DailyDot originally reported the rumor with sources inside the industry. “Gaming and esports in particular are going to be a big driving force for the new-look YouTube Live,” one source said. “There’ll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon, and I would say that the record numbers of esports viewers are only going to grow when Google start promoting and partnering with these events.”
The idea behind YouTube Live is an about-face from how YouTube treated gamers in previous years. In late December, 2013, the service saw a mass exodus of content creators after a botched implementation of the “Content ID” system. Many of the largest video game networks on YouTube had extremely large followings, which funded many of the networks. The automated “Content ID” system wreaked havoc across YouTube, not only removing many videos but then blocking the possibility of ad revenue for the account holders. Despite the publishers and copyright holders of the videos telling Google that the videos had their blessings, many channels remained dark and prompted the switch to Twitch, as the Guardian noted in December of 2013.
While no official word has come from YouTube over this development, an announcement will likely be made prior to E3, the industry trade show in Los Angeles where the largest announcements are made from game publishers and developers. The only official word from YouTube was to the Daily Dot in the form of an animated GIF.
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