Yahoo is using what could well be the last Cannes Lions where its a major player to launch a number of new services. Yesterday saw the firm launch a new content marketing initiative and mobile ad format, and today sees the companys Tumblr social network jump into the live video arena.

The move towards live video was initially discovered by Twitter user David Chartier, and the blogging platform now has a dedicated page promoting the new capability and a program of livestreams that will launch today at 4.00pm EST, including video from the surface of Mars, a basketball tutorial from the Harlem Globetrotters and a livestream of people inflating “a very big thing in a very small room”.

The technical underpinnings of the new capability are unclear at the moment, and its not known whether it will be a native feature or simply a tool that will integrate existing live video services like Periscope into blogs.

Neither Tumblr nor Yahoo have made any official announcements about the service so far, but TechCrunch has confirmed that the existing promotion comes from Tumblr itself, rather than a third party, and that live-streaming will be available to users once it launches.

Tumblr, which boasts 550m monthly active users, will be competing against rival live video services including Twitters Periscope, Facebook Live and Amazons gaming-focused Twitch.

The platform is not noted for its native video experience, with many users preferring to instead embed YouTube videos, so it will be interesting to see how the service copes with live-streaming, particularly on its mobile app.

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