IOC Announcement: YouTube Will Stream Olympic Games In Asia, Africa

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Thursday that Google’s YouTube service will offer various live feeds for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics.

The video streaming service will specifically offer content coverage in Asia and Africa where many areas have not signed Olympic airing rights.

Under its agreement with the IOC the streaming service will offer 10 feeds from the games which will broadcast live from 9am until 11pm GMT. YouTube will also broadcast a 24-hour Olympic News Channel that will showcase highlights and reports from all Olympic events.

Overall the IOC hopes to broadcast 2,200 hours of sporting event coverage during the 2010 London Olympics.

Among YouTube’s audience will be 42 Sub-Saharan African territories and various areas throughout Asia.

YouTube Live service has seen a big push from Google since streaming Prince William and Kate Middleton royal wedding last April.

Because various television networks own the rights to broadcast the Olympics in their countries of origin the YouTube coverage being offered by the IOC will be focused only on areas outside of that coverage.

YouTube will offer its streaming Olympic service to 64 markets with more than 450 million Internet users gaining access to the world’s largest sporting stage.

Putting the cost of airing the Olympics in perspective NBC paid approximately $2 billion for the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Games.

NBC will stream all 32 Olympic sporting events on its website this summer however consumers must first confirm that they have a cable or satellite TV subscription.

Would you prefer to watch the Olympics on your TV or through your TV?