MUMBAI: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has partnered YouTube to live stream the London 2012 Olympic Games in 64 territories on the IOC’s channel on YouTube. The Olympics will be held from 27 July to 12 August.
During the Olympics Games, sports fans in these 64 territories across Asia and Africa will be able to enjoy live coverage of the events as well as highlight clips on this digital platform — free-of-charge.
Viewers from these territories will be able to watch the streams on the IOC’s YouTube channel, accessible online or Internet enabled devices like smart devices/mobile phones and other YouTube-enabled devices.
The live-streaming on the IOC’s YouTube channel will provide exclusive digital access to the London 2012 Olympic Games in territories where digital broadcast rights have not already been acquired by the IOC’s broadcast partners: India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
And in 44 Sub-Saharan African territories on a non-exclusive basis, including: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central Africa Republic , Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Congo, Republic of, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eriteria, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia , Madagascar , Malawi , Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria , Rwanda, S?o Tomé and Príncipe Senegal, Seychelles , Sierra Leone , Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The IOC’s live streaming on its YouTube channel will consist of 11 different simultaneous high-definition broadcasts, all with English language commentary. There will be ten live feeds from London 2012, running 9 am to 11pm (London time) (on some days, these will start early or finish later based on competition schedule), plus a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel, which includes summaries of the latest results, general reports on different events, and interviews with athletes.
Fans will also be able to catch up on highlights and full events — all organised by the day, medal event, or the sport. The IOC channel will also continue to feature historic content from past Olympic Games. In total, the IOC’s YouTube channel will offer over 2,200 hours of sporting event coverage from London 2012, including all the medals finals.
IOC Television and Marketing MD Timo Lumme said, “We are delighted to be able to offer live online coverage of London 2012 to sports fans free of charge across these 64 markets. We first provided clips on our channel on YouTube during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games across the region, and since then have continued to provide footage of past Olympic Games across the world on our YouTube channel. Now we will also be able to offer live coverage during London 2012, complementing the excellent coverage provided by our broadcast partners across the world across all media platforms."
YouTube Head of Sport Content Partnerships Claude Ruibal said, “From baseball to cricket to martial arts, YouTube has become a global hub for live sports. There is no sporting event, however, more exciting or iconic than the Summer Olympics, and we are thrilled to work with the IOC to bring live coverage of these truly international Games to even more people around the world. The IOC is making the most of our platform by offering fans 11 different live streams on their channel, which can be viewed on desktops, mobile phones, and Internet-connected devices. We hope sports fans enjoy finding the exact event they want to see as well as checking daily highlights whenever they want to see them.”
