YOUTUBE is to challenge established television broadcasters by offering its own live channels.

It would mean millions of users could broadcast on the website in real time - producing their own programmes or reporting on breaking news.

YouTube is just three years old, but is already the second most popular website after its owner Google - it hosts 73m video clips which are viewed hundreds of millions of times a day. The long-rumoured live channels were revealed by co-founder Steve Chen in a low-budget video shot at a trendy New York party.

He said: "We've never had the resources to do it correctly, but now, with Google, we hope to actually do it this year."

Google bought YouTube for $1.65bn in 2006 and the company can now call upon the search engine's seemingly limitless resources.

The move will further blur the distinction between traditional television broadcasters and online delivery systems.

In its first seven weeks the BBC's iPlayer was used to stream or download 17m programmes while ITV, Channel 4 and Sky also have growing web services. Sites such as Amazon and Apple's iTunes sell thousands of films and programmes for download.

A number of live video streaming websites already exist but most lack any kind of serious content and will be dwarfed by YouTube's move.

IT commentator Bill Thompson said: "It's an obvious thing for YouTube to do and lots of people will use it. When the major player in a market extends the model slightly then the chances of being successful are very high."

YouTube is thought to be trying to get its live channels ready for November's US elections.

The website has already achieved a political first by letting its users submit live questions to candidates for a debate shown on CNN.

Live streaming means it would be able to host another high-profile debate - but this time broadcast it itself without the help of a TV channel.

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