Google has confirmed yesterday’s reports – YouTube has inked rights from the big-money Indian Premier League’s (IPL) licensing partner Global Cricket Ventures to live-stream all 60 matches of the 45-day tournament, starting March 12.
It’s YouTube’s first deal to live-stream a big global sport – no mere domestic competition, IPL is the largest cricket tournament in the world, forecast to generate $1.6 billion over 10 years. But the deal will include a US blackout because “re-broadcast options will be available” will be available there, the announcement says.
Indeed, just as the International Olympic Committee hosted Beijing 2008 highlights on YouTube for countries which had no television deal, this looks like a gap-plugging, market-building deal, rather than a win of top-tier rights for Google (NSDQ: GOOG). DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) aired last year’s IPL in the U.S. on its $149-a-year Cricket Ticket, and Setanta Sports had shown IPL in the UK but has now collapsed…
That last point means YouTube will be the only network (not even Sky Sports or ESPN) showing IPL to the UK, from where many IPL players are lured by big-money salaries. That’s a significant watershed for both it and the web as a medium, but one which – like September’s first-ever online-only England soccer game – has arisen only because TV rightsholder Setanta left the market.
It’s therefore unclear what Google will have paid for these rights – or, indeed, whether the IPL views it mostly as welcome global promotion. The deal works by Google and the IPL sharing sponsorship revenue…
Already, Google India is clearly hoping to make a killing on ad sales. From the announcement: “The advertising options on YouTube will be available only for a limited number of sponsors over the course of the season. Companies will have the opportunity to sponsor live streamed matches, match re-broadcasts, and ongoing viewership of clips and highlights. Advertisers will be able to advertise on the YouTube homepage, the live stream page, video ads during the match itself amongst several other innovative formats.”
There will be 20 different user-selectable camera feeds, like stumpcam and a view from behind the bowler. Google says it will also add non-live videos including highlights, interviews, pitch-side reports – “an alternative view of the match not available on television or any other media”. And it will use its social network Orkut to host an IPL-branded community supporting live chats with players and team owners, plus competitions and match polls.
IPL chair Lalit Modi, in Telegraph.co.uk, suggests the deal is bigger than that: “This changes the world of sports broadcasting. The internet has changed the lives of everyone and this will do the same for sport.
“We are now taking our event truly global for the first time. Google gives us access to 500 million pairs of eyes every single moment of the day … It doesn’t matter if you live in Australia and the games are shown during the middle of the night. Now you will be able to get up in the morning and, if you have an internet connection, watch the action at a time of your choosing and not have to wait for a broadcaster to repeat it.”
If Modi’s being honest, then he seems to be bucking the news business’ current trend of valuing bankable paying audiences more than an audience of advertiser eyeballs: “We are in talks with all broadcasters in the UK but we would rather give it away free (on YouTube) than let some of them make money out of us and the consumer.”
YouTube chief Chad Hurley is also planning to run Formula One social video content on his video site following his personal investment in the U.S. F1 team.
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Source: Robert Andrews
