DNS - YouTube to Offer (Live) Streaming of Indian Premier League Cricket Tournament

Cricket fans will be able to watch the semifinal and final matches of this year's Indian Premier League cricket tournament live on YouTube (News - Alert)this week, thanks to a multiyear agreement YouTube signed with the IPL in January.

Previously if cricket fans in the US wanted to view the action live, they had to sign up for subscription-based online sports site Willow.tv and pay $60 to stream the games in real time.

This is the first time YouTube will offer live streaming of the event - however, as a concession to conflicting pay-TV rights, it must present the games to viewers here in the US 'time-looped,' about 15 minutes after each game ends.

The games will be streamed on YouTube's IPL channel at youtube.com/ipl. Fans can also replay archived videos the games.

Cricket is becoming more popular here in the US: YouTube reports there is massive US demand for on-demand viewing of this year's IPL matches.

Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard