Indiatimes Partners with Google to Stream Indian Premier League on YouTube

Good news for Cricket fans. Indiatimes has announced its partnership with Google’s YouTube. All 74 matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) games will be streamed on Indiatimes’s YouTube channel and microsite.

“Users all over the world will be able to enjoy the entire season both on Indiatimes.com as well as the Indiatimes’ channel on YouTube ( youtube.com/indiatimes ) with a 5 minutes delay in India, match-length delay in US and live webcast for Rest of The World. Match highlights and other catch-up clips will be made available after the matches,” the statement explained.

The partnership with Google is made possible as Indiatimes is the rights’ partner for IPL’s internet, mobile and audio content. The partnership also means that Google will be a non-exclusive partner for two years as both brands seek to monetize the IPL content.

Ads would likely be the revenue model but nothing on the business side was explained. The most important news, however, is that cricket fans around the world can get to watch the games online. It’s a good content distribution strategy as IPL seeks to gain more traction across the world. Making it available for “free” would boost viewership. Of course, viewers would have to “pay” by viewing ads.

The recent Cricket World Cup in India took the world by storm, especially when India won the final at home soil. The world (not just India or the Cricket nations) celebrated India’s victory on Facebook and Twitter. Nike also broadcasted a victory-cry commercial to celebrate the unique relationship between Cricket and the people of India.