YouTube is receiving a slice of the Olympic pie. The Google Inc. unit is providing about three hours a day of exclusive content from the IOC's Olympic Broadcasting Services on a dedicated channel during the Games. The content, including highlight reels and daily wrap-ups but not live coverage, now extends to 77 territories -- South Korea, India and Nigeria among them -- that aren't officially covered by Olympic sponsors.Users in the U.S. and other markets where the IOC has vended digital video-on-demand rights on an exclusive basis are barred from watching the footage.
This is the first time in Olympic history that a comprehensive global online coverage is made available. The scheme provides Olympic footage to the "young generations of sports fans" who are already going online for entertainment. IOC supplies and uploads the content -- an estimated 500 to 800 segments over the course of the Games.
YouTube, on the other hand, will be able to sell ads around its Olympics channel, but only to Olympic sponsors. The tight timing and the exclusion of the U.S., where the online-ad market is far more mature than most other countries, means the financial advantage will be marginal. The arrangement is really more about the accessibility. YouTube anticipates snatching more sponsorship opportunities by extending the partnership with the IOC in the future.
The content is expected to reach only about 200 million people, because the territories covered have relatively small numbers of online-video viewers. By comparison, China -- which isn't allowing the YouTube broadcast -- has an estimated 180 million people who watch online video; they will be able to watch Olympics content from CCTV.com, the online arm of China Central Television, and its partners.
The growing number of people watching video online has been a challenge for Olympics organizers. While new media conduits, from blogging to online video sharing, could swell viewership of the Games, they also make it more intricate for organizers to control exclusive content, for which sponsors pay millions of dollars.
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