The National Lacrosse League has typically streamed its games live on its official website, but in its coming season, the NLL is taking its online broadcasts to YouTube.
The NLL will continue to have an eight- to 10-game package of TV games on CBS’s cable sports channel, but the YouTube channel will provide a home for the live broadcast of every game in the nine-team league, which runs from January to May.
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CBS Sports Network carries a package of games, in addition to the online presence.
Photo by: BILL WIPPERT
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“We love the access this provides the NLL to fans all over the world,” said George Daniel, the NLL’s commissioner. “This will be a distribution channel that anyone can access and it enables us to reach new fans and grow our fan base. It’s a powerful thing.”
“The NLL is putting its sport in front of millions, connecting and building deep relationships with its fans,” said Frank Golding, YouTube director of sport for North America.
The league will handle the production of the games, as it has in the past when the games were streamed at NLL.com. The NLL has a revenue-share agreement with YouTube for advertising sold.
The NLL games will be broadcast as part of The Lacrosse Network, a branded home for a variety of lacrosse content on You Tube. The Lacrosse Network carries everything from indoor and outdoor professional lacrosse to college games, features, highlights and instruction.
The network will handle ad sales for the NLL games, as it does with its other lacrosse content.
“We’ve had online streaming for six years with a partner [Livestream] on our site, but having our games on YouTube puts us in front of one of the largest online audiences in the world,” Daniel said. “It’s great for our existing fan base and it’s an opportunity to grow the league virally as well. Obviously, we’re not as big as a lot of other pro sports leagues, but that also means that we don’t have any kind of restrictions to doing something like this.”
The NLL is in the second year of a two-year deal with CBS Sports Network that includes a handful of regular-season games, plus the playoffs. NLL games also appear on regional sports networks in Canada.
“But the online presence is absolutely critical for us,” Daniel said. “It’s not something we do on the side like a lot of other leagues. We’ve got to have it.”
The NLL has enjoyed a stable offseason and all nine teams and owners are expected to return for the 2013 season.
