By Kathy Savitt, CMO and Head of Media

We love the rush of live, memorable moments - the excitement that arises from a firsthand experience of an incredible event, or the immediacy of watching a breaking news story unfold. It’s not always possible to be there in person, but thanks to Yahoo, now you can experience even more of what you love in real time.

This year, we’re expanding our live video experiences to offer even more video content than ever before, including unbelievable concerts with the biggest music festivals to add to live music concerts with top tier artists, informative and insightful finance and news coverage, and fan-favorite entertainment.

Since we launched Yahoo Live in July 2014, we delighted Yahoo users with live programming with more than 110 million streams.  Through our partnership with Live Nation, 43% of the people visiting our live music content are new to the Yahoo network, with highly engaged users staying on Yahoo Live for an average of 24 minutes.

One of the series we’re announcing is Ultimate DJ, a global Electronic Music competition-style live series that is executive produced by Simon Cowell, Patrick Moxey, Hamish Hamilton, Ian Stewart and Kelly Belldegrun.

Simon Cowell said, “I have always been excited to be involved in a show where you have the chance to discover a star. And to do that, I know from experience you need great partners and the rest will follow. We’re excited to be partnering with Patrick Moxey of Ultra Records and Hamish Hamilton of Done and Dusted to bring this series to Yahoo.”

“Ultra Records has broken many of the biggest Electronic DJ artists of today and we’re thrilled to be a part of this series for Yahoo to bring the newest Electronic Music DJ artists to a massive audience,” said Patrick Moxey of Ultra Records.

Hamish Hamilton of Done and Dusted added, “I love nothing more than capturing the energy of a live event. Now with Ultimate DJ we’ll send that excitement around Electronic Music around the world. This is something that could only exist online, something truly innovative.

• Ultimate DJ - Created by Syco Entertainment and executive produced by Simon Cowell, Patrick Moxey of Ultra Records and Syco Entertainment’s Kelly Belldegrun, Ultimate DJ will be co-produced by Syco Entertainment and Done and Dusted and also executive produced by Ian Stewart and Hamish Hamilton, who will also executive direct. Ultimate DJ will see some of the hottest new Electronic Music DJ artists from around the world competing in this live global series. Set to air on Yahoo Live with voting via Tumblr, the winner will be crowned the Ultimate DJ and be offered an opportunity to headline a major Electronic Music festival and a record contract with Ultra Records & Sony Music.

We’re announcing additional new Live video content, including:

• Live Nation & Yahoo: Year 2 - The Live Nation Channel on Yahoo Live has become the online destination for live music.  In our second year, we’ll go beyond live streaming the most anticipated concerts to also broadcasting the world’s most acclaimed music festivals.
• One of the festivals we’ll feature is Electronic Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas- one of the world’s largest music festivals, which draws over 400k attendees, selling out without announcing a single artist.

• iHeartRadio Concert Series - We’re dialing up our partnership with iHeartMedia, as Yahoo Live will broadcast all of iHeartMedia’s top events, including the iHeartRadio Ultimate Pool Party, the iHeartRadio Music Festival and Jingle Ball, in addition to album release parties and concerts performed by a roster of smash hit artists.
• Superfan Live - Yahoo Live will offer fanatic users live after-shows featuring exclusive content from the most talked-about primetime TV shows, including recaps, interviews with casts and creators, and exclusive content to give fans a home to interact around their favorite shows.
• Everybody’s Business - A Yahoo Finance live weekly show that delivers the smartest take on the stories that users really want to know. Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer will lead a cast of contributors including Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp, OZY CEO Carlos Watson, Fusion Senior Editor Felix Salmon and LinkedIn New Economy Editor Caroline Fairchild to discuss  the intersection of business, technology and culture.
• Yahoo News Live - A new daily live broadcast show from Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric and the Yahoo News team, including News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga, Political Columnist Matt Bai, and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff as they bring a big story live and on-demand every day. Insights about top news stories will be accompanied by interviews, analysis and access to Yahoo News’ world class news team.