IPL ON YOUTUBE

All 60 games of Season 2010 will be broadcast LIVE on YouTube on www.youtube.com/IPL
YouTube is to show this year’s Indian Premier League live, according to a report in today’s Guardian.

The deal will involve every country except the US.
This has cast doubt on the networks that held the TV rights to the last IPL, although an IPL spokesman said TV rights would go ahead.

The two-year deal gives the Google-owned YouTube the exclusive rights to stream IPL matches online, with the two companies splitting revenue from sponsorship and advertising.

The value of YouTube’s deal was not disclosed. However, the IPL originally sold its Internet rights to the Dubai-based company netlinkblue for $50-million over 10 years.

At the time the IPL made it clear that online streaming deals excluded markets — such as cricket-playing nations including South Africa and New Zealand — where television broadcast deals were in place, said the Guardian report.
In August 2009, netlinkblue’s parent company, Live Current Media, sold its IPL contract to Global Cricket Ventures for $1.75-million, which worked with the IPL on the latest deal.

Under the new IPL deal, YouTube will broadcast 60 matches over 45 days live in the 2010 IPL season through a dedicated channel at youtube.com/ipl.
YouTube claims that this is the first major sporting event to be streamed across the globe.

Shailesh Rao, Google’s managing director in India and for media and plaforms in the Asia Pacific region, is quoted in the Guardian: “We are thrilled to have the IPL as our global partner and bring to the YouTube community around the world and here in India an interactive, unique experience building greater awareness around the world for the sport.”