San Francisco — As it celebrates its first birthday, YouTube Live, the live-streaming outfit of Google’s video social network, is getting bigger and better since it was introduced a year ago on the web, is now giving out some bonus to others by adding monetization options to its live streaming platform, including the ability for publisher to charge for live events in the form of pay-per-view streaming and “professional-looking” video software.
The gifts being distributed are really for those on the video development and production end, offering them more resources for better live streams and making more money at the same time. As mentioned on the official YouTube Partners & Creators blog earlier today, developers have packed the ability for publishers to charge a pay-per-view fee during streaming events on YouTube Live.
“You can now monetize your live events with advertising or paid options. A live event can be claimed in the new video manager like any other video and monetized with instream ads or paid options where you can set price by country.”
Essentially, Satellite and cable TV subscribers already have a similar service, which entitles them to view a live event-like Wrestlemania, UFC championship match-ups, boxing matches, etc.–for a one-time price that is fixed by the company putting on the event. Now, YouTube’s handful of eligible content partners can do this for their own live events.
Image Credit: (YouTube Live)
As a matter of fact, YouTube has been trying out with pay-per-view for select publishers, including UFC. The UFC, for instance, can charge YouTube viewers to watch a specific match after arranging a payment options on a particular video or event. Charging users to watch a live streaming event on YouTube Live is currently limited to viewers in the United States, U.K., Japan, France and Canada.
Paying for access to streaming video has been included as an option on other streaming services. For instance, UStream has included the option since October 2010. Besides, making the option more widely available could make YouTube’s live streaming more attractive to other sports and entertainment publishers.
Apart from adding the functionality to charge for access to a live streaming event, content creators can include banner and Google Adsense advertising on the video page. In order to further figure out what you are drawing from YouTube Live, real-time analytics and insights are also rolling out with information about playbacks and concurrent viewers of live streams by geography and format.
Finally, access to real-time data will allow content creators to instantly view what regions of the world are streaming the video in addition to information such as number of playbacks, the amount of current viewers and the average time spent watching the streaming feed.
(Credit: YouTube)
“If you are one of the many people who have demanded for YouTube Live but do not have access yet, we want to thank you very much for your patience. We have now developed these features with the expectation many more of you will eventually use YouTube Live, and like we said last year, this process takes time to roll out broadly,” the post read.