YouTube details live streaming take-up for 2012 Olympics

Video-sharing website YouTube delivered 231 million live streams of action during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Google-owned website said that 72 million of the streams were consumed via the International Olympic Committee’s official YouTube channel.

The IOC provided free live streaming of the London Games through its YouTube channel to 64 territories across Asia and Africa. The live-streaming provided exclusive digital access to the 2012 Olympics in territories where digital broadcast rights had not been sold.

The majority of YouTube’s live streams were viewed in the United States through its partnership with the NBCUniversal media company, which held the exclusive broadcast rights for the Games in the country. The NBCOlympics.com website, a joint project between NBC and YouTube, delivered more than 159 million streams.