YouTube has announced a two-day trial of its new live streaming platform starting from 13th September. They have already roped in Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom and Young Hollywood as partners to help out with the trial.

At 01:00 GMT, 13 September, YouTube will begin the live streaming trial. The new platform will stream the live video directly in the YouTube channels. The platform also allows for "Live Comments", which will let viewers interact with the broadcaster in real time. All that the broadcaster need to do the live streaming is a webcam.

YouTube is no stranger to live streaming. They have streamed the Indian Premier League and a U2 concert live before. But, in those cases they used third part technology.

Currently UStream is the most popular live streaming service. It has been reported that they had a 650% increase in viewing time during the past one year. When a heavy weight such as YouTube decides to directly compete with them, things should get a lot rougher for UStream and the other live streaming services.