Friday, December 11, 2009

YouTube's new "sports hub" to host Paralympics broadcasts

From The Telegraph in the UK:


The YouTube ‘Sports Hub’ is being launched in partnership with SportAccord, the representative of institutional sport worldwide that groups together 104 World Sports Federations, including, basketball, swimming and the Paralympics.

From next Spring more than 2,000 videos from the large variety of sports represented by the SportAccord will go live in a specially created area of the Google-owned video sharing site. They will be a mixture of clips and long-form content showing matches, competitions, key interviews, backstage footage and educational material.

Other federations also represented include: cycling, karate, American football, and wrestling. All video material will be advertising supported – mixing both pre-rolls and display banner adverts.

Chad Hurley, co-founder and chief executive of YouTube, announced the news with Hein Verbruggen, president of SportAccord, in Paris at Le Web 2009. Mr Hurley said: "We see a lot of content but this is some of the best content we've seen for engaging audiences about things they care about. It's compelling, and this is what YouTube is all about - celebrating diversity."

He added that he was looking forward to more opportunities with SportAccord and did not rule out the possibility of webcasting live sporting events on YouTube in the future.

This ties in with a sentiment Mr Hurley expressed in a previous session earlier today at LeWeb, where talked about ramping up YouTube’s live webcasting activity.

He said: “I think live events are an interesting opportunity for us. We are trying to ramp up our activity in this area. It would be great to host a monthly event and make it as global as possible.”

Mr Hurley used the example of streaming U2’s concert in October which attracted over 10 million views to prove how popular a regular live webcast could be for the site. More recently YouTube streamed Alicia Keys’ concert in New York – which attracted over four million views, according to Mr Hurley.

YouTube is in the process of repositioning itself as the home of quality long-form content online, having recently major content deals with both Channel 4 and Five. It has also just launched its first traditional press and outdoor advertising campaign in the UK to promote its recently acquired full length content – with the slogan: “YouTube’s got TV”.