YouTube has maintained that it does not have any plans to bid for rights to major sporting events in the near future, according to a senior executive from the video-sharing platform.
YouTube on Wednesday live streamed UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport’s coverage of the final of the Uefa Europa League club football tournament, and will do the same for the Champions League final on May 28.
Around a million people are believed to have watched YouTube’s stream of the Europa League final. Despite the success of the stream, YouTube insists bidding for major sporting rights such as the English Premier League is not part of its strategy.
“We are not a buyer of rights,” Stephen Nuttall, YouTube’s senior director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told UK newspaper The Guardian. “We are very good at distributing content to the largest possible audience. It’s pretty clear. We are a technology company, we do a great job of creating tools that broadcasters, (sports) leagues and clubs can use to tell their stories to (the) largest possible engaged audience.
“That is what I expect we will continue to focus on. Our whole model is about partnering with people to allow them to make the greatest possible success out of their content.”
BT Sport also made Wednesday’s final between Premier League club Liverpool and Spanish Liga side Sevilla available to non-subscribers through the BT Sport Europe and BT Sport Showcase channels.
An average of 1.6 million viewers tuned in on BT Sport Europe, as well as 606,000 on BT Sport Showcase, which was available to view on digital-television service Freeview. Its audience figures across both channels peaked at 3.6 million. BT Sport said the figures represented its highest average audience and peak audience to date.