14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube made somewhat of a splash when it announced that it would be streaming all the matches from the Indian Premier League cricket 2010 season. It was a pretty big announcement, the first live sports event to be carried by YouTube, and it proved to be a very smart move. The IPL matches were very popular, attracting quite an audience over the couple of months they’d been running.
“With only five of 60 matches left in the tournament, we’ve been blown away by the response. We’ve seen views come in from countries around the globe, and the IPL channel on YouTube now has over 40 million views,” Amit Agrawal, strategic partner development manager at YouTube, wrote.
“We’ve been particularly surprised by the number of cricket fans tuning in from the U.S... With so much enthusiasm coming from U.S., we’re excited to make the semi-final and final matches available on YouTube as they happen... Now fans in the U.S. can catch the action as it unfolds in real time as the four top ranking teams progress to the knockout stage of the semi finals,” he added.
The tournament was especially popular in India, no surprise here, but it was also very popular in the US. Other countries where cricket is followed, like the UK and Australia, also drew significant audiences. The popularity of the event in the US can be explained by the fact that, well, the US is a big country, so more people are going to watch anyway, but it’s also due to the big number of Indian immigrants in the country.
Because the tournament proved so popular in the US, YouTube will now make the semi-final and final matches available in real time on the site. Previously, they were streamed beginning 15 minutes after the real match ended. The first semi-final will be streamed this Wednesday and the final match is scheduled for April 25.