IPL Gives Youtube Record Figures
YouTube has registered new record monthly audience figures in the UK boosted by the impact of broadcasting live Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket coverage.
The Google-owned site attracted 17.2m users last month, up 6% from 16.1m in February. The figures account for 43% of the video-on-demand market, according to UKOM.
The video-sharing site has hosted up to two live Twenty20 cricket games every day from the IPL which began on 12th March.
Figures for each programme reached 15,000, which is higher viewing figures than pay TV broadcaster Setanta achieved last year. However, it was considerably short of the 250,000 viewers from ITV4 this year.
The introduction of long-form content on YouTube in its fifth year comes as it hopes to increase commercial revenues from advertisers.
The shift has already resulted in users spending longer on the site, with the average now 54 minutes per month on the site. This compares to an average of 17 minutes for the BBC iPlayer.
