YouTube extends mobile live streaming to creators with 10k subs

YouTube is extending the availability of its mobile live streaming feature to all content creators with more than 10,000 subscribers, ahead of a planned rollout to all users further down the track.

Mobile live streaming enables creators to set custom titles, enable live chat and choose whether to send notifications to their subscribers.

As part of the extension of the availability of mobile live streaming YouTube has launched Super Chat, which it describes as a “live stream monetisation tool”. The feature enables fans to “stand out from the crowd and get a creator’s attention”, in the words of the blog posting announcing the release, by purchasing chat messages that are highlighted and stay pinned at the top of a video’s chat window for up to five hours.

Super Chat is currently available to content creators in 20 countries and Super Chat-enabled video is available to viewers in 40 countries.

YouTube initially announced the launch of mobile live streaming in June last year. The feature was initially available to a handful of key content creators at the VidCon event.

However, the Google-owned service has been slow to make the functionality available more widely, even as rival platforms including Facebook and Twitter have aggressively moved forward with live video streaming.

Cisco this week predicted that mobile video will account for close to 80% of global mobile data traffic by 2021, up from 60% last year, with the volume of mobile video increasing ninefold over the five years between 2016-21.