Sports videos on Youtube experience a boom

The pay channel Sky Sport HD offers a free service on Youtube for Bundesliga, soccer and other sports fans who cannot watch live matches on TV or stream them, for example.YouTube's figures are impressive: more than one billion users worldwide visit the video portal every month. 3.1 million of them come from Switzerland. Every minute, 100 hours of video material are uploaded to YouTube, and every month users watch more than 6 billion hours of video material.Olympics live on YoutubeSports content is becoming increasingly important. Football clubs, for example, present their news via Youtube, and there are more than 400 football channels in total.More and more sporting events are being broadcast live. For example, the last Olympics were broadcast live via Youtube in 65 countries, including the USA. In addition, there are so-called "live events" such as the Ballon D'or award ceremony or the presentation of new signing Neymar at FC Barcelona."Sportainment" very popularBut niche sports have also found their way onto YouTube. One area that is growing strongly is so-called "action sports. Under the motto "Sportainment," videos of daring stunts reach an audience of millions. The following video, for example, has already been viewed over 11 million times:

"Getting close to the fans".Why this trend? "Video portals like YouTube can reach a large audience," says Christoph Heimes, Manager Strategic Partner Development at YouTube Sport EMA. "On the one hand, this can be financed through advertising, but on the other hand, it can also be financed through pay channels. These paywalls, for example for soccer news channels on YouTube, will be increasingly installed in the future, according to Heimes.Boundary between consumer and producer disappearsThe boundary between consumer and producer is increasingly disappearing on video portals like Youtube. "TV is about reach, while YouTube is about engagement," says Heimes. This is also demonstrated by the "the best job in the world" campaign. The casting was looking for a presenter for the 2013 Confed Cup in Brazil. Users were able to submit an application video via YouTube that lasted a maximum of three minutes. The winning video by Eli Mengem:

Authenticity and proximity requiredSports videos therefore offer great opportunities to communicate with your own fans and to bind them to you. "What is needed is not only professionalism, but also authenticity and closeness," concludes Christoph Heimes. sw