Mecca Now Available Live on YouTube

Today, Muslims around the world will be observing the month of Ramadan– a month in which Muslims believe the Quran was revealed almost 1432 years ago beginning with one word “Iqra” (read), and reflect on the wisdom, devotion, and sympathy-to-mankind that comes with knowledge.

With our continued efforts to bring you more and more live content from around the world, we are very pleased to announce our association with The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to bring you Islamic prayers live this Ramadan from the Holy Mosque in Makkah on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/MakkahLive

Best wishes to all Muslims all over the world on the occasion of the holy month.

Posted By: Tarabzona Abdul Rahman (Director of Google for Arab markets, emerging) and Najeeb Jarrar (Director of Marketing for the Middle East and North Africa Google)

India Vs West Indies 2011

In an exciting new development, Ten Cricket announced that it will be streaming the forthcoming India – West Indies Cricket series LIVE on YouTube.com. The series, which kicks off on June 4 with a T20 game, is expected to generate a great deal of excitement amongst Cricket fans worldwide, and the partnership between Ten Cricket and YouTube will make the entire series available on the Internet – both in Live and On-demand formats. Apart from the actual series, a whole range of video packages would be made available to the fans. What’s more, the videos will be streamed to the users in the quality that suit their respective bandwidths.

Speaking on the tie-up, Atul Pande (CEO – TEN Sports) said, “We have always been at the forefront when it comes to embracing newer technologies and distribution platforms. In fact, the first time we streamed our channel (Ten Sports) live on Internet was way back in 2009 during the Compaq Cup Cricket tournament. The response we received from fans was so overwhelming that we were further spurred in our desire to focus on the Internet as a viable distribution platform for our content. I have no doubt that Cricket fans will enjoy the viewing experience that will be brought to them through our partnership with YouTube.”

The India – West Indies Cricket series starts with the lone T20 match on June 4 and will be followed by 5 One-day Internationals and 3 Test Matches.

YouTube Turns Six

In May 2005, the YouTube founders launched YouTube.com, providing people with a platform to broadcast themselves to the world. The first video posted on YouTube.com was a 19-second video called Me at the Zoo. Six years later, more than 48 hours of video are uploaded every single minute, representing a 100% increase over last year alone.

As YouTube continues to grow, we’re invested in bringing you more content, innovative tools and an increasingly effective platform to tell your stories.

First, your video. Back in November we challenged you to up the volume of videos you uploaded to the site. And boy, did you take the bait. Today, more than 48 hours (two days worth) of video are uploaded to the site every minute, a 37% increase over the last six months and 100% over last year.

From videos documenting a baby’s first steps in San Francisco, Calif., to a protest in Syria, to a commencement speech at Yale University, we’re continually impressed and inspired by the quality and breadth (in addition to quantity) of videos that you upload to the site every day.

On our end, we’re constantly evolving to provide the best video sharing and viewing experience for you from faster processing of uploads to longer video lengths to the launch of self-service live stream capabilities to partners.

IPL-III matches live on Youtube

IPL-III matches live on Youtube

BCCI to partner Google India for the venture.

Cricket lovers can now watch the Indian Premier League (IPL) live on internet portal YouTube. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will partner with Google India to stream live matches of its domestic IPL league in the Twenty20 format.

Google’s video streaming internet portal YouTube will stream live matches of IPL-III, which begins in March. This will include 44 days of IPL, with 59 matches.

YouTube already has a video channel for IPL. It was launched during IPL-II and exclusively streamed highlights of the matches played then, as well as the inaugural session and the award ceremony. The latest development is an extension of what YouTube offered its users. Users, on the other hand, can view the matches on YouTube free of cost.

The announcement is likely to be made on Wednesday. However, it’s not clear if the rights have been sold for a specific period of years to Google or whether it’s a revenue-sharing deal.

While Multi Screen Media (formerly known as Sony Entertainment and the company that owns SET Max, which airs IPL) holds the satellite telecast rights, the global media rights are held by World Sports Group (WSG), which implies BCCI cannot sell the new media rights to any other company. According to sources, WSG’s rights only include telecast rights.

However, when contacted, WSG President (South Asia) Venu Nair declined to comment on the issue, but added: “We are not aware of any partnership between IPL & Google and cannot comment on what is not relevant to WSG,” he said.

On the other hand, Multi Screen Media President Rohit Gupta said: “Live streaming of IPL on YouTube will help create buzz and excitement around the league. It does not affect our viewership, as the core viewers remain with television.”

Search giant Google is one of the most popular online properties in India. For instance, Google.Co.In attracts 31.6 million unique users (UUs) per month and has an India reach of 73.6 per cent, with 2,832 million page views per month, according to a report by audience measurement agency Vizisense.

Meanwhile, Google.Com gets 28.8 million UUs per month. Its social networking property, Orkut, attracts 15.3 million UUs per month and has 2,548 million page views monthly. Among video-sharing sites, Google’s YouTube scores again. It gets 10.9 million UUs per month.