YouTube gears up for Olympics highlights and coverage

YouTube has partnered with broadcasters in more than 60 countries to provide official highlights of the Rio Olympic Games.

The video site has deals in place with broadcasters in including the BBC in the UK, NHK in Japan and America Movil in Latin America excluding Brazil.

A group of YouTube content creators – including popular vloggers Liza Koshy, Brodie Smith and Ben Brown – will also offer on-the-ground reports of the celebrations in Rio.

“These creators will take advantage of our brand new mobile live streaming feature to share real-time moments from Brazil as they unfold, as well as 360-degree videos that will make fans feel like they are on the streets of Copacabana,” said Christoph Heimes, YouTube’s head of news and sports partnerships, EMEA

He said that the YouTube stars will provide their own commentary of the Games, “from the first victory to the last defeat, to long days around Rio on bike rides and aerial tours”.

According to YouTube stats, in the last 12 months more than 23,000 years of content have been watched on the video site for the four most popular Olympic Games’ sports – athletics, gymnastics, diving and swimming, and volleyball.

“To put this in perspective, that’s the equivalent of watching all 17 days of the Olympic Games, 24 hours a day, not once, but over half a million times,” said Heimes.

“Nearly two thirds of that viewership has happened on mobile devices – and even more in countries like the US, UK and Japan.”