YouTube is in talks with the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League to show live games, according to a news report.
Bloomberg reports that the Google-owned video sharing site is hoping to build on the popularity of cricket’s Indian Premier League last year, to become the number one destination for live sport on the web.
Brian Suh, head of YouTube Partnership at Google’s Korean unit, said they are in talks with “most pro sports leagues” including the NBA and NHL, as well as football leagues in Europe.
YouTube is hoping the deals with push up its viewing figures, and the time people spend on the video sharing site.
On average, YouTube viewers spend 15 minutes on the site daily. But with the Indian Premier League event, viewers spent an average of 40 minutes watching each cricket match, said Google’s director of content partnerships Gautam Anand.
Securing the rights to broadcast major sports would surely cost Google a fair amount, but it would also bring in major ad revenue for the company.
In addition to sports, Google is in the process of increasing other types of content on YouTube, including longer clips of movies and TV shows in an effort to compete with the likes of Hulu and Netflix, as well as streaming live music events.
YouTube has had successful efforts with music before: one of the biggest live music streams was of a U2 concert that could be watched in 16 different countries back in October, 2009.
