YOUTUBE, which has said it would start live streaming in 2008, has delayed its plans until 2010.

Live streaming was seen a logical step for Youtube, and co-founder Steve Chen said in February that it was always wanted to do but haven't had the resources to do it correctly.

However since the Youtube was bought by Google he hoped to launch something this year.

According to Alleyinsider this was news to Google which had never seriously thought about it. In fact a few months after Chen mouthed off to the media the idea was shelved because it would cost the search engine a bomb in infrastructure and bandwidth costs.

Youtube execs estimated that if just 10 per cent of the service's users took advantage of live streaming, the company would have to add 20 to 25 per cent to its huge server and bandwidth infrastructure to support it.

This would be fine if advertising for live streaming was worth more than a one armed Slough Town goalie. Early estimates are that conventional Web video can create much more dosh. µ