LinkedIn is rolling out a new video streaming feature that gives people and organizations the ability to broadcast real-time video to other users of the service.

First reported by TechCrunch, the LinkedIn Live service is initially launching in beta only in the U.S. on an invite-only basis. In coming weeks, LinkedIn will post a contact form for others who want to “get in on the action,” although it’s not clear exactly what that means. At some point in the future, all users will have access to the Live service as well.

Initially, the live content that LinkedIn is planning to broadcast would see it possibly compete with YouTube. Content will include “conferences, product announcements, Q&As and other events led by influencers and mentors, office hours from a big tech company, earnings calls, graduation and awards ceremonies and more.”

LinkedIn offering a video service isn’t highly surprising given that the popular business social network was acquired by Microsoft Inc. in 2016. Among a list of Microsoft acquisitions over the years was Skype, a service that while offering voice calls is also used for video streaming.

Since acquiring LinkedIn, Microsoft has added a range of new features and additions to the service. In July 2017, a LinkedIn Windows 10 app was launched followed by data integration with Microsoft Word in November of the same year. Office 365 integration occurred in February 2018 while in June, Bing Translate came to LinkedIn, supporting translation support for approximately 60 languages.

LinkedIn Live will tap into the resources of  Microsoft’s Azure Media Services for its service delivery. A product-as-a-service offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming or analytics, Azure Media Services has been growing in popularity although it is a still a minnow up against competing services from Amazon Inc. and Google LLC. LinkedIn’s video service could promote Azure Media services to millions of new potential customers.

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