The England and Wales Cricket Board has agreed a deal with YouTube for live coverage of this summer’s five Ashes Test matches between England and Australia to be shown via the video-sharing website in mainland Europe, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“There is… potential for us to monetise the digital broadcast area and it may also help with piracy control,” the national governing body’s commercial director, John Perera, said. “By offering a formal stream it may help in the battle against piracy which is a big problem for us.”
In other news, World Snooker, the sport’s global governing body, launched a dedicated page on YouTube to coincide with the start of the World Championship on Saturday in Sheffield, UK.
World Snooker’s page will offer player interviews and highlights of the global governing body’s tournaments, as well as archive footage. New video footage will be uploaded every day during the World Championship.
Meanwhile World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn lodged a complaint with the BBC after the UK public-service broadcaster’s BBC Two channel cut away from live coverage of the closing stages of popular snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan’s win against Marcus Campbell on Saturday to show a repeat of the sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.