With a successful test run of the live broadcast of cricket matches from the Indian Premier League last summer under its belt, YouTube is looking to score more live sports, this time the NHL and NBA, according to a published report.
In an interview in Seoul Monday, Google's director of content partnerships for Asia Pacific, Gautam Anand, said the company plans to stream more live sports this year.
"It's fair to say that there will be a lot more appealing sports content you'll see on YouTube," Anand said. "We have ongoing conversations with pretty much everyone."
Another Google exec said the company is in negotiations with "most pro sports leagues" as well as soccer leagues in Europe.
The push is aimed at adding longer content that will keep viewers on YouTube longer, which would make the site more attractive to advertisers.
Google has said that during the Indian Premier League cricket matches, viewers averaged 40 minutes on the site, far longer than the average user's 15 minute graze of content on YouTube.
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