Ustream Announces Stats, New Funding, and a Four Star General On The Board

Live video sharing service Ustream is announcing some new stats about the take rate on their service along with a new round of funding.

They claim: more than 115,000 people have joined Ustream.TV broadcasting one million unique viewer hours per month. Each day, 5,000 hours of video are broadcast on Ustream.TV with up to 300 simultaneous broadcasts taking place, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers. The Plain White T’s broadcasted a live concert on Ustream.TV to more than 150,000 fans worldwide.

Ustream is also announcing additional funding from Western Technology Investors, the Band of Angels, and other prominent angel investors. They have also added four-star General Wesley Clark to Ustream.TV’s Board of Advisors. My guess based on General Clark's comments is that Ustream is focusing on the political side of live video. While I am not into politics heavily, I can imagine that this would be a strong strategy as it might allow a "fan" to watch their selected politicians as they travel around their districts.

So far the most fun I had on Ustream was the Techcrunch party this summer in California. It was fun to count the blue shirts and khaki pants with everyone in the chat and I even did a recap based on the interviews that took place.