Google keen to stream live sports on You Tube

Success of IPL open options for Google

PTI | May 12, 2010



Fresh from the success of IPL's live streaming on its subsidiary You Tube, Google is looking at broadcasting other sports on the platform, even as it promises to be "better prepared" for next year's IPL and offers an improved experience to viewers in India.

"This year certainly surpassed expectations, so we are very pleased. We did not expect that many viewers in India in particular and we pretty much exhausted all the internet capacity in the country to deliver the experience to as many fans of IPL as we could," Google India Managing Director Shailesh Rao told PTI here.

Rao said the company saw many more viewers for IPL on You Tube than it had expected. From the amount of time viewers spent watching per visit to the number of countries from which You Tube saw viewership, "on almost every metric we were beyond our initial expectations."

This year, YouTube carried the Indian Premier League's 60 matches live around the world. This was the first time the company showed a major sporting event live.

Google has entered into a two-year tie up with IPL to broadcast the 20-20 format cricket extravaganza on its You Tube platform.

"What we learnt is how to run live events on the web, how to make sports on the internet successful in a live format. We have received a lot of inquiries from around the world about doing other events, other sports and we are in active conversation about that," Rao said.

Rao added that the company learnt quite a bit about how to make a live streaming experience on the internet successful and would be better prepared next year to deal with the large number of viewers.

"We just had more viewers than we expected. It's obviously an issue but it's a good problem to have. Now that we know where the demand is coming from and that India has a lot of people who want to watch IPL on You Tube, we would certainly be better prepared next year."

Terming India as "one of the most successful markets we have in the world as a company," Rao said Google would continue to invest in the country, where "our business has grown manifold both in terms of usage and revenue."

He said the company will continue to work with firms, making them aware about how to use digital advertising to grow their business.

"A lot of our engineering resources are exclusively focused on making sure our products are as secure as possible and we are confident that the products are absolutely safe and secure to use," he added.


 

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