YouTube Live FAQ Session March 2014

YouTube Live Streaming 100 Subscribers

YouTube Live Streaming is now available for channels with 100 subscribers.
by Bern Rexer

Previously your channel required 1000 subscribers for live streaming. This news heard from VidCon opens up live streaming considerably for anyone with a YouTube channel.

It was also announced in the YouTube Creators Blog http://youtubecreator.blogspot.com/2013/08/investing-in-you-more-tools-to-build.html and confirmed on the YouTube Live Operations product forums:
YouTube Live Access Expanded

If you have more than 100 subscribers then check your account features and select Enable for Live events.
http://www.youtube.com/account_features

YouTube Live Feature Request

By Bern Rexer

If you have a feature you want to request for the YouTube live streaming services then consider two places to submit your YouTube live wishlist. 

The YouTube Live Streaming Community on Google Plus has a category to post your feature requests.
It can be found here:
YouTube Live Feature Request

The Google Product Forums has a special YouTube Live topic user group. This is an active forum moderated by the YouTube live ops department for announcements and issues.
Although they don't respond to all posts you have a good chance of your request being seen by YouTube here.

I don't know of an official feature request submission form or email but maybe someone can leave a comment.

Marketing YouTube Live Streaming

>>>>>>>> NOTICE >>>>>>>>>
This post is under  construction - sorry about the formatting. 



As YouTube live streaming continues to gain users, it is important to consider how you market your live event. 

Where to drive your viewers and what web page or live stream URL to promote is extremely important to capture your audience and reduce your Production Cost Per Viewer (PCPV).

The following revised article was originally posted on Google+ here:
Shared publicly  -  5:17 PM

 

But controlling that viewing experience is also important. Most live events carry a message, call to action, or buy now - and the additional parameters of their viewing experience can help to establish that message. You should control as much as possible where your audience should go to watch the event. 
The new YouTube One Channel design might brings a new challenge if for diving your traffic to your YouTube channel for a live event. You can no longer 'feature' a live stream on the front page of your YouTube channel the same way you did before.
The naming convention is:
A powerful feature of the YouTube Watch page is its sharing mechanism. If your live event is being shared while it is occurring - chances are it is the Watch page URL which the new viewer gets. 
The other concern is that you have less control of the viewing experience because the Watch page has little customization. Some viewers are ultimately going to view from this URL but it may not be the viewing experience you desire. 
And if you want to promote the archive of the event, but the setup of the recording is performed incorrectly then you need to promote the post event uploaded video separately. 
Mobile viewers will most likely watch from the mobile version of this page unless a custom app has been created. 
At the conclusion of the event if not recorded then a "this live event has ended" is displayed.  
This URL is a bit tricky. It will automatically point to the live event Watch page - but only if that event has already started and is the first listed video in a Live Now section of your YouTube channel. 
You can create the Live Now section on your YouTube channel pretty easy from its front page. And you should get in the habit of always creating a Live Now section for any live event regardless of where you want to drive your traffic. 
It might be a challenge to utilize this link for pre-marketing - because if the event has not begun then the viewer is directed to your channel home page. From their they need to know where to watch and will hopefully see the Live Now section you created earlier.
It could be a good link to promote if you are frequently producing live events at least everyday.  
However, there is no longer a large featured, front and centered live video automatically playing when the viewer arrives (unless you have a ad account brand channel). 
A big change for the One Channel is that, if you are using a channel trailer, the unsubscribed audience will see that video playing when they arrive - but the subscribed viewer will not see the trailer playing. 
It is important to know that a big initiative of the One Channel is to encourage more subscribers. And the use of a smart trailer is a technique which might increase your subs. +Tim Schmoyer discusses best practices for your channel trailer. 
But your trailer can be useful for your live event. One technique is to use your live event Watch page URL as your trailer. You can feature the live event as a trailer for non subscribers and it plays automatically. 
Since subscribers will not see the trailer playing then they should see the Live Now section you created earlier. 
Your trailer can also be a brief teaser video which promotes your live event. Teaser videos can be very useful to not only announce your live event but also offer a test video to ensure your audience can watch the stream with compatible systems. OK, sure YouTube is has the most reachable audience and is one of the most compatible and ubiquitous platforms - but offering a demo or teaser video is still a good habit to keep.  
The naming convention is usually:
You create your live event, then create the playlist, then add the live event Watch page URL to the playlist. 
You can add multiple videos to the playlist so you might consider adding the teaser video mentioned earlier as the first video in the list. Lists can be changed at anytime so after the event is live then remove the teaser video and replace with a closing or thank you video.
Playlists are useful but the viewer has some options of what video to select first which might take away some control.  
These can be very simple pages or can be very creative and branded viewing experiences with multiple platform logins for comments and buy now offers. 
A hosted embedded player page also gives you another viewer statics option because you can look at your web server log files to get traffic metrics. 
Embedded player pages can also be created easily from other social media platforms and many content management systems. Because of the ubiquity of YouTube most platforms offer automatic embedded player pages by inputting the Watch page link.
These custom branded channels can be very creative and I'm always excited to see them when a big live event is announced. They are almost always the top featured live events from http://YouTube.com/Live.
Ask how many different types of links should promote for your live stream? One idea is to drive traffic to the only one event page. But because your audience is likely to be diverse, coming from various devices or social media platforms - you might take the opposite approach and offer many viewing options. But remember that each experience take work to create and managed.  

Ensure that all producers, planners, promoters and stake holders are coordinated with the correct live event address. 

Promote your live event by promoting a teaser video - then promote that teaser video through Adwords for Video. 

Will your archive URL be the same as your live event URL? If the video is under two hours then it is very beneficial to maintain one URL through the life cycle of the live event. 

When setting up the live event, select Public. It will then be listed at http://YouTube.com/Live which offers a bit of promotion.  

Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Ask how many different types of links should promote for your live stream? One idea is to drive traffic to the only one event page. But because your audience is likely to be diverse, coming from various devices or social media platforms - you might take the opposite approach and offer many viewing options. But remember that each experience take work to create and managed.  
Ensure that all producers, planners, promoters and stake holders are coordinated with the correct live event address. 

Promote your live event by promoting a teaser video - then promote that teaser video through Adwords for Video. 

Will your archive URL be the same as your live event URL? If the video is under two hours then it is very beneficial to maintain one URL through the life cycle of the live event. 

When setting up the live event, select Public. It will then be listed at http://YouTube.com/Live which offers a bit of promotion.  

Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Ensure that all producers, planners, promoters and stake holders are coordinated with the correct live event address. 
Promote your live event by promoting a teaser video - then promote that teaser video through Adwords for Video. 

Will your archive URL be the same as your live event URL? If the video is under two hours then it is very beneficial to maintain one URL through the life cycle of the live event. 

When setting up the live event, select Public. It will then be listed at http://YouTube.com/Live which offers a bit of promotion.  

Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Promote your live event by promoting a teaser video - then promote that teaser video through Adwords for Video. 
Will your archive URL be the same as your live event URL? If the video is under two hours then it is very beneficial to maintain one URL through the life cycle of the live event. 

When setting up the live event, select Public. It will then be listed at http://YouTube.com/Live which offers a bit of promotion.  

Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Will your archive URL be the same as your live event URL? If the video is under two hours then it is very beneficial to maintain one URL through the life cycle of the live event. 
When setting up the live event, select Public. It will then be listed at http://YouTube.com/Live which offers a bit of promotion.  

Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
When setting up the live event, select Public. It will then be listed at http://YouTube.com/Live which offers a bit of promotion.  
Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Encourage Viewer engagement from YouTube comments but also from multiple login platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 
Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 

Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Keep URL links active through the life cycle of the live event: pre event promotion > live event > post event archive. This usually means one link throughout. 
Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
Gaining subscribers to your YouTube channel should always be a goal for you live event!!
#YouTubeLive   #LiveStreaming   #seomarketing  #eventpromotion


hhttps://plus.google.com/u/0/113251903012045208366/posts/ejjegq2GKyU
by Bern Rexer

#YouTubeLive

Marketing your public live event is imperative to gain viewers for a successful public event and keep your PCPV at a minimum. 

The most important question your audience will ask is:

Where do we go to watch the event?

Understanding what the viewing experience will be is important to plan. And the device your audience views from will be diverse so the viewing experience will be a little different for each. 

So read on to learn ways to control the experience. 

Some options of where to drive traffic for your YouTube live stream include: 

➪ the Watch Page URL.

This is the origin or source URL for all videos and live events on YouTube. It is one of the easiest way to promote your live event. This page is formatted by YouTube, has little customization and looks almost exactly like an uploaded video Watch page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=video_id 
The video id is generated by YouTube and unique to the live event video stream.

The Watch page offers many powerful features such as optimization with title, description, and tags. The comments section works well for engagement and their is a prominent subscription button. 

Promoting this URL can be powerful if you are confident it will not change before the event occurs. Also, If you have set up DVR and recording for your live event, which YouTube makes very easy and is available almost immediately after the event, then the recorded video uses the same URL as the live event. This makes your promotion of that URL even more valuable. 

The challenge with promoting this URL is that it is a source URL auto generated by YouTube. So you don't have exact control of it. For example, If you build the live event, get the generated ID, market the URL out to the public and then find that the URL needs to change, maybe because the live event wasn't initially set up correctly - then you will need to create a new event and market again.

➪ Generic Live URL 

The naming convention is

http://YouTube.com/user/{YourChannelName}/live

➪ Your YouTube Channel. 

This is beneficial if you want viewers to know more about your channel and other videos. And you want to increase subscribers. 






 

➪ YouTube Playlist 

A playlist can be created from your YouTube channel which creates its own URL and unique playlist ID.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=video1_id=playlist_id 

 ➪ Hosted Embedded Player Page
This is usually hosted from your domain web site. This option gives you a lot of control over the page content. You build and customize a web page that you host on your servers and embed the YouTube live video player on that page. 

 ➪ YouTube Branded Channels and 'Gadgets' 
Many large productions with large ad campaigns can have their channel custom branded. Often these customizations include links to external web sites, multiple network login for comments (such as from Facebook and Twitter along with Google), and other options.

One benefit is that the viewer is driven to the home YouTube channel URL and can see the event front and center and are more likely to subscribe or purchase. 

If your event is large enough then talk with your Google ad or YouTube partner rep about your project.   

➪ A Google+ Event Page

This is a very quick and easy method of creating an embedded player page that can target your audience through invitation and RSVP. It also encourages powerful engagement through comments. 

The Google+ Event Page is a great experience for Google+ users and is created from your Google+ account from the Events option. 

You can easily embed the live event Watch page URL here and create a custom banner image. 

Promotion and optimization of the Google+ Event Page is very easy and powerful. 

It can also be used for Hangouts and Hangouts on Air. Learn more about the G+ Event Page for events from +Ronnie Bincer. 

~

Things to consider about all options: 

What are some other event page options you use for live events on YouTube? 

Live Streaming Watched 2.5x Longer

By Bern Rexer

According to an Ooyala report, connected viewers watch online live streaming video 2.5 times longer than VOD.

Other resources:
ReelSEO
Streamingmedia.com

Download report here: Ooyala Global Video Index

YouTube Live Streaming is Brilliant Marketing Strategy #BestVideo

By Bern Rexer

On March 31st Google began promoting it's annual April Fools Day pranks for many of it's products. It seems that each Google program try's to outdo themselves with the most over the top gimmick.

YouTube got in on the act by live streaming a Nominee Announcement Ceremony. The description from the live event Watch page said:

Every video uploaded over the past eight years is under consideration to win YouTube. Our presenters will be announcing all the nominees for 12 hours every day over the next two years. 

Many hours before the live stream started, scheduled at Noon EDT, it was apparent YouTube was on to something. The audience engagement began after the Watch page URL, where the video is displayed, was posted from a few promotional links.

Promotion also came from a teaser video which displayed over 3 million views before the live event started.

Audience engagement included a few thousand concurrent viewers, according the the Watching Now stats, interacting through the comments section several hours before the event began.

I found the link after my daily perusing of the YouTube Live listings. And noticed right away the large viewing Watching Now count before the event began.
Large view counts are intriguing for any videos on YouTube. And it is hard not to click through a live event with a large Watching Now audience to discover what the attraction is.
So I clicked and as the page opened - a black slate appeared with a countdown clock and there was the comments section updating frequently. It was the comments that everyone was drawn to. You can build your audience engagement before the event begins by enabling and encouraging comments.

Promoting the live event included YouTube sending out a few Tweets with the hashtag #BestVideo and a Google+ Post

If you aren't a Google+ user yet your are missing out on hyper charged rankings from your posts and some neat data called Ripples which show how a G+ post spreads over time and offers a nice graphic representation. +Larry Page was one of the big influencers for the live event post.

Google+ Ripples

As the show began we were introduced to YouTube's Submission Coordinators Donald Hurley and Kendra Fuller. (Donald looks too young to be the dad of +Chad Hurley don't you think?)

Donald Hurley and Kendra Fuller

And for the next twelve hours they started to read from red cards with the YouTube logo, each video which had been submitted to YouTube since 2005. They didn't even leave the set during breaks which were scattered through the show as interstitial playbacks of Nominee Spotlights.

Various lower third and other graphics were used throughout the show including the Twitter feed hash tag. There were suggestions from the graphics encouraging the audience to vote if Kendra or Donald would eat spaghetti or hot dogs for dinner. But there were also suggestions to submit your video using the hash tag. The results were impressive. The YouTube Live Event topped trends on on all social networks and flooded the Internet with YouTube links which were submitted from YouTubers in hopes of getting their videos mentioned during the live stream.  If you have a video on YouTube this show made you think about it.

The webcast appeared to use the newly introduced live streaming experience known as the New Platform, which offers YouTube live streaming producers multiple bitrate selections up to 1080p transcoded from one encoded stream. It also offers DVR capability where the viewer can scrub back to the beginning or any previous spot of the broadcast. This was a nice feature if you wanted to go back in time to see if your YouTube video had been read - I'm still searching if my old YouTube video got mentioned. If the DVR option is enabled when producing a live event, then the archive is available almost immediately after the live event is complete. I noticed this event after being twelve hours long was available as an archive within a  few seconds after conclusion - same watch page with view counts and comments intact.

One of the many funny moments during the live stream, and a break in the routine towards the end, was Donald Hurley thanking his family and that he wouldn't see them for the next two years at the 11:12:45 mark.

The live event concluded with weary Kendra and Donald being tucked in to cots on set by a stage hand so they could awake April 2nd to begin again. But I didn't see the event listed from the YouTube Live page today. Maybe this really was a joke.

Some notable stats I observed:
Over 400K (and counting) comments from the Live Event Watch page.
Over 50K new subscribers to the YouTube channel page.
Concurrent views up to 25K and over 500K unique views. The archive will surely top 1 million views before the end of today.

I'd consider this live Internet broadcast a historic YouTube event for many reasons including the duration and the numbers. But also because it set a great marketing precedent of how to use a live event to build brand awareness and created audience engagement. I think the event it is an advertising case study for utilizing live streaming to market your brand or message.

YouTube continues to solidify it's ubiquitous brand for video consumption. Nice job YouTube for 'winning' the Google April Fools competition. I'm looking forward to watching next year!

:o)
BR

~

Some takeaways if you are an internet marketer or event producer:

• The audience feels connected to each other through the event and the live event can produce tremendous audience engagement while it all happens real time. 
• A live event is a single time and place where a group of people come together to talk about the same thing. Live streaming brings the event to each remote online viewer.
• Real time messages during live events are powerful - you know your audience is present and listening.
• Viewer profiles who posted via YouTube comments, Twitter, G+ or any profile based social network can be logged for future marketing efforts.
• Crowd sourcing link submission during a live event from your audience is a way to get your domain links online. 
• A well produced annual or serial event will seed your audience for the following event. 

Questions:

• Do you think because of the thousands of additional YouTube videos posted by users during this live event - YouTube gained ad revenue?
• Do you think they gained additional brand awareness?

YouTube Rolls Out New Live Streaming Platform to All...

by Bern Rexer

YouTube Rolls Out New Live Streaming Platform to all who are currently enabled to stream live.

**** See update below****

Live Streaming Specialist from the YouTube support blog announced yesterday "We are working on improving the YouTube Live experience and are now excited to roll it out to all accounts that are currently enabled for YouTube Live!"

If you are currently enabled to stream live, like many revenue producing YouTube Partners and non-profits are, you will see the following opt-in message from your Video Manager Live Events section.

As I mentioned some specifics in a previous post - there are considerable benefits of using the new platform. Especially with how YouTube utilizes transcoding. Instead of streaming up to four separate bit rates to the media servers - YouTube now allows a single ingest stream of one higher bitrate, up to 6Mbps - 1080p, which it will then transcodes to lower bitrates including to mobile devices. Overall this saves you upload bandwidth and encoding CPU.

Some other neat functions of the new platform are the use of viewer selected cameras called multi-camera events. Think of watching a live stream of a concert and clicking on the camera behind the drummer. Or maybe watching a presentation and clicking the camera with slides only. I can think of lots of uses for this.

The user selected camera is placed above the player:

The live stream can be 'recorded' on the server and the archive is available very rapidly after the live event concludes. Ideally you maintain the same live event URL for your archive with the comments and viewer count intact.

You can even implement a DVR function in case a viewer arrives late - they can scrub backwards in time to see what they have missed.

YouTube has a lot of ground to cover to catch up with mature live streaming services such as Livestream or Ustream but it's apparent they are making tracks. Some of that ground includes enabling live streaming to more partners - which they say will continue to be offered.

Check out YouTube's Live Streaming Guide for the details.

If you would like to keep up with YouTube live streaming then join:

Google+ Communities


Or

YouTube Live Streaming LinkedIn Group

and follow:

@mxpi on Twitter

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<UPDATE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

On May 15th, 2013 Google announced 'YouTube live streaming expanding to more channels'. Any channel with over 1000 subscriptions would be eligible to apply for the Live Events feature of streaming video live on YouTube. 

The YouTube Live Support group verified the announcement with further instruction of how to apply for live streaming on YouTube. 

This announcement is historic in the live streaming industry. Any channel with over 1000 subscriptions is probably in the top 10% of all YouTube channels. However those content producers probably distribute to over 80% of viewers. So this announcement effectively opens up live streaming to most content distributors.  This is the announcement that everyone following YouTube live streaming has been waiting for. It opens up the accessibility of a free content delivery network and will shift many over to YouTube live streaming platform - especially for those that already use YouTube for video on demand hosting.

But it also creates an application mechanism - which had not existed before except to non-profits. This gives YouTube the knowledge of who wants to stream live. 

It may also create more on-demand content and more channels. There will be many whose focus is on live streaming content and not necessarily video on demand. Those live producers have never considered YouTube until now. This gives them motivation to create a channel and gain subscribers to become eligible for live streaming. 

However, we are still waiting - if you are eligible, and after you apply it still takes time to actually become enabled - "Once you’ve applied, access to live will be granted gradually.''  

YouTube Changes Live Encoder Settings

By Bern Rexer

<<< UPDATE >>> here are the latest YouTube Live Encoder settings.

YouTube has made notable changes to their recommended live encoding settings. Particularly with the video bitrate increase for each of the four stream resolutions of 240p, 360p, 480p, and 720p - but also adding a 1080p live streaming resolution. These resolutions can be selected by the viewer from the quality cog adjustment on the bottom right of the YouTube player. 

YouTube's addition of a New Platform suggests encoding a single 6Mbps stream which their media servers then transcode to the lower bitrate streams. 

The bitrates have increased considerably as shown from charts below of the old and new suggestions. 

240p increases from 300Kbps to 500Kbps 

360p increases from 600Kbps to 1000Kbps

480p increases from 1000Kbps to 2000Kbps

720p increases from 2400Kbps to 4000Kbps

OLD recommendations:

OLD encoder settings for YouTube live streaming published by YouTube

NEW recommendations:

NEW encoder settings for YouTube live streaming published by YouTube*

Most YouTube accounts do not have the ability to stream live. Those that are enabled may only have a basic feature of the streaming to a single bitrate of 360p. And some have the enhanced live streaming feature to stream to all four bitrates. Furthermore, YouTube has added a 'New Platform' for live streaming which transcodes a single higher bitrate stream to the lower bitrates. 

YouTube live streaming Old and New Platform*

Transcoding a single highest bit rate stream down to the lower bit rates and to mobile devices is a big step forward for YouTube live streaming.  A video on the ytliveops YouTube channel discusses transcoding and the new platform. 

*Published from the YouTube Live Streaming Guide 3/8/2013

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<UPDATE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

YouTube now has updated their encoding suggestions to included a recommended bitrate. This is great news as it shows their is flexibility with encoding bitrate. More testing will determine how the YouTube transcoders  handle dynamic bitrates which is offered by many encoders. 

YouTube Live Recommended Encoding Bitrates

YouTube Live Streaming Guide

By Bern Rexer

The YouTube Live Streaming Guide offers insights and instructions for streaming live on YouTube. If you are an enabled partner or just curious about how YouTube live streaming works then browse through this information.
The guide along with this video were updated early 2013.

YouTube Live Events Troubleshooter

By Bern Rexer

A YouTube Live Events Troubleshooter support link is available for viewers of live streaming on YouTube who may be experiencing issues.

The link offers four radio button options - which branch to additional options:

What can we help you with?

• I'm having a playback issue (audio or video)
• I'm seeing an error message
• I'm having a purchasing or billing issue
• I'm having another issue or would like to provide feedback

The next time you watch a live event on YouTube and have streaming issues then try this out. 

The link can be found here:

YouTube Live Events Troubleshooter

Secure Live Streaming on YouTube using Google+ Circles

By Bern Rexer

YouTube offers privacy options for sharing live streaming through Google+ Circles. This can be beneficial if for example your company has an all employee, all hands or town hall style live webcast and you want to limit the stream to only your employees. Or if you want to offer a live stream of a conference, seminar or live concert - but only to a specific audience - such as those who have purchased the event. Then you can add the audience into your G+ Circle and they will get an invitation email to view the stream.

This method is a way to increase the private event outside of the previous 50 person limit. Each viewer however must have a Google+ account.

This is a very powerful and easy option for secure live streaming on YT. It also leads to some powerful viewer metrics.

Here is the YouTube support link that explains Private and Unlisted Videos on YouTube.

The important paragraph in this support selection is:

• If you use your Google+ identity on YouTube, you do not have a 50 person limit on sharing, as private video sharing is done to Google+ circles. There is no limit to the number of circles to which a Google+ user can share. 
• In order to watch a private video, your contacts must already have a YouTube account. If they don't already have an account, they'll first need to sign up for an account. If they do not sign into their account before watching the video, the video will not load.

YouTube adds 16 Categories to Live Home Page

by Bern Rexer

YouTube's Live Home Page - where a list of all events streaming live or scheduled to stream live appear, has a new layout - adding a list of 16 categories (and new graphics too).
Because YouTube continues to provide its partners the capability to stream live, more live content is being produced. This new layout allows viewers to easily search live content within the following categories. Each category has a dedicated page and is setup similar to an individual YouTube channel where the viewer can subscribe to it.
Subscriptions are sparse with a few channels and Gaming appears to be the most popular.

Sports

News & Politics

Gaming

Music

Google+ Hangouts On Air

Autos & Vehicles

Comedy

Education

Entertainment

Film & Animation

Howto & Style

Nonprofits & Activism

People & Blogs

Pets & Animals

Science & Technology

Travel & Events


Additional notes:

• YouTube provides special featured events at the very top of the YouTube live home page. 
• All events that show up on the live listings are created as 'public' events by the channel partner. 
• Events with more viewers appear at the top of a listing within each category. It appears that if an event is live but there are no viewers, or the event is not receiving a stream (an error message appears) then that live event will still show up in the listings.
• Although Google+ Hangouts On Air has its own category, there still appears to be HOA events within other categories.