14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube is already the biggest video site on the web, but Google's ambitions are much bigger. It wants to challenge TV as a whole and it's making a number of moves towards this. One of the biggest is live sports.
YouTube started last year and was very successful with the Indian Premier League cricket matches and is now in talks for all manner of events, in the US, Europe and elsewhere.
Gautam Anand, Google’s director of content partnerships for Asia Pacific, revealed that YouTube is in talks with several sports leagues for content distribution.
This includes most pro sports leagues in the US, apparently, but also football leagues in Europe. Of course, just because there are ongoing talks doesn't meant that they'll reach any conclusion.
Still, it's big proposition for YouTube which could significantly bolster its viewership and also the brand with premium content mostly unavailable online.
"It's fair to say that there will be a lot more appealing sports content you'll see on YouTube," Anand said. "We have ongoing conversations with pretty much everyone."
Note that the distribution deals most likely cover areas outside the US, at least when it comes to US content.
Even so, YouTube may become the only place where you can watch these matches live in many countries, which may not have a regular TV or cable network carrying them.
Last year, YouTube struck a deal with the high-profile Indian Premier League to stream all matches in the competition live. The deal turned out a huge success and viewership surpassed YouTube's expectations.
Still, YouTube will have a long way to go before becoming a significant threat to TV when it comes to live sports.
It does help that, unlike most TV content, the rights owners are not the ones broadcasting the matches, most of the times. This should give YouTube a much better fighting chance, provided it can also prove that it can generate significant amounts of money from advertising.