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YouTube takes on telly with live streaming trial

YouTube is taking another step towards replacing your telly with a two-day trial of live video, including Rocketboom and Tony Hawk.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
Richard Trenholm

YouTube is taking another step towards replacing your telly with a two-day trial of live video. Videos will be streamed live, complete with live commenting, to see how the service holds up.

The trial includes how-to videos from Howcast, comedy including Auto-Tune the News from Next New Networks, cool stuff from Rocketboom (the home of former CNETer Ella Morton), and celebrity nonsense from Young Hollywood.

It feels slightly unintuitive, as the beauty of YouTube and other online video services is you can go and watch what you want when you want, free from the capricious tyranny of the TV schedules. Do you really want to be at your computer at a set time? Still, the Web is also about instant access, and it doesn't get much more instant than live.

The four trial partners are very US-centric, so if you want to catch Tony Hawk, Dane Cook or Know Your Meme you'll have to tune in on Pacific Standard Time. That's 7 hours behind GMT, so live shows will kick off with Rocketboom Live at 4pm today and run until about 1am. Here's the schedule: