NOTE: Update for watching the 2010 Winter Olympics online: Click here.
YouTube will get its hands on official Olympics video after all -- but none you'll be able to watch in the United States.
The International Olympics Committee announced today that Google's video site will stream about three hours a day of exclusive content -- summaries and highlights -- from Olympic Broadcasting Services on a dedicated channel, the Wall Street Journal reports. YouTube can sell ads around the content, but only to Olympic sponsors.
It'll be available in some 77 territories that aren't covered by Olympic sponsors, including South Korea and India. But it won't be available in the U.S. -- NBC has exclusive online rights, so YouTube's channel will be blocked here.
Meanwhile, there's already plenty of "unofficial" Olympics video on YouTube that you can watch here. Like this illegally uploaded ESPN clip of yesterday's Team USA victory over Russia, which has been watched more than 50,000 times. As part of YouTube's new deal, it will "conscientiously" filter out Olympics content, removing even cellphone video uploaded by spectators. We'll see how that goes.
See Also:
Are The Olympics Going To Kill The Internet? We Don't Think So
NBC Hedges Its Olympic Bets: Buy A TV Ad, Get A Web Banner, Too
NBC U Inks Broad Olympics Deal With Verizon
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.
