Back in 2014, Google‘s streaming empire You Tube tried to get Twitch TV, a website dedicated to live gaming. It didn’t happen. You know You Tube didn’t give up their live gaming dream that easy.
Now, they’re launching a live streaming platform focused on live gaming and electronic sports. And it sounds like they’re banking a lot on this venture. Sources expect live gaming to be a huge part of You Tube’s improved service. They predict a time when live streamers and live sports will be running to broadcast their events. So far, they’ve only been crawling, or not moving at all. In 2010, You Tube started broadcasting Indian Premier League soccer games live for free. It didn’t make much noise. By 2014, there were no mention of live events on You Tube on their homepage. But there are You Tube channels that broadcast live; some do so pretty often. Even the State of the Union address of January 2015 was broadcast live on You Tube. So this tells us it can be done. But now You Tube wants to take streaming to the next level. Instead of a partner, Twitch TV is now a competitor. Sources say You Tube is rounding up 50 engineers and streaming experts to make this dream happen. They’re expected to launch their new streaming program at a gaming expo in June 2015. No one from You Tube is talking.
If You Tube is going to give streaming another chance, they should include their most popular channels and stars. And there are plenty of game experts on You Tube that would jump at this chance. Yesterday, I talked about a chance of You Tube broadcasting a live NFL game this coming October. That would sure help their streaming cause, but what if that dream doesn’t come true? Why not reach out to your own You Tube subscribers for help? Wouldn’t it make competition with Twitch TV really interesting?