The Olympics are coming to YouTube.
Highlights of the Beijing Olympics will be streamed daily on the popular video-sharing web site to 77 territories where digital rights have not been sold, or have been acquired on a non-exclusive basis, the International Olympic Committee said today. The IOC did not release financial details of the deal.
The package from Beijing will include highlights, news and daily clips of the competitions and will be directed primarily to Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
"For the first time in Olympic history we will have complete global online coverage, and the IOC will have its own broadcast channel and content production facilities," said Timo Lumme, the IOC's director of television and marketing services.
Internet users outside the 77 territories will blocked from seeing the clips through a technology called "geo-blocking."
The IOC made online broadcasting available to a handful of territories four years ago in the Athens Olympics, and to 23 territories for the 2006 Turin Olympics.
