Many of you out there love watching live sports, in fact it’s the highlight of the week for many people. It’s also the main reason many can’t bring themselves to cut the cord, with cable owning the rights to most live sports. But maybe YouTube can change that. In time.
Live On YouTube
YouTube has been testing the waters with live video broadcasting over the past few years. 2009 saw U2’s Pasadena Rose Bowl concert broadcast live on YouTube worldwide. 2010 saw this extended to a five-concert series featuring artists such as Arcade Fire and John Legend.
Gigs are one thing, but sports are quite another. In 2010 YouTube broadcast all 60 matches in the 45-day Indian Premier League cricket tournament. These were available to watch in every country outside the U.S., which has little interest in cricket anyway.
There was speculation at the time that this move suggested YouTube had ambitions in the live streaming sector. And that speculation has now been renewed.
Live Sports Online
According to Business Week, Google is in talks with “most pro sports leagues” about getting more live sports events on YouTube. This includes the NBA and NHL, as well as “soccer leagues in Europe.
This is all from an interview given by Gautam Anand, Google’s director of content partnerships for Asia Pacific. None of the companies mentioned is willing to expand on the plans, and there is actually speculation that they’re limited just to Asia, at least in the short-term.
Longterm, however, I think this is a natural progression for the ambitious company.
Conclusions
For Google this would represent the Holy Grail of online video. Live sporting events are insanely popular, and having NBA, NHL, and European soccer games showing live on YouTube would bring in millions of viewers and consequently millions of dollars in revenue.
Will it happen? I have no doubts it will, one day. It will likely begin in territories other than the U.S., and then full games will likely be shown in delay (24-48 hours after broadcast).
Eventually everything will be available online, although it will cost. And I think YouTube will be at the very heart of that revolution.
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