A New Sport for Many Americans

Everyone needs to admit it; we all love YouTube (unless, like some of my readers, you live in an area that is still left in the ancient world of dial-up Internet). However, I at least would love to see more sports broadcasted on this extremely popular and addictive medium. Attention sports fans, this is about to change! In an article I read on mediabistro.com, it was reported that the Indian Premier League has struck a deal to broadcast all of the third season matches on YouTube! When I first read this name, soccer immediately came to my mind given the popularity of the Premier League in England. However, I was surprised to see that this league actually plays cricket! I don't even know the rules of cricket, so this is of immediate appeal to me. I love to learn about popular games that I just don't happen to know about yet. When I heard that an acquaintance of mine went to college and took up cricket, I thought it was really cool, but I had no idea how to play this game other than the fact that it is somewhat like baseball.

I think that in the same way that I want to learn about cricket, many other people would enjoy learning about a popular sport in the rest of the world. Using YouTube is also very smart for the simple fact that it is free. In order to build an audience, free views go a long way. Many people like myself also would have a hard time paying to see something with such low familiarity. I'm sure that cricket is a great game, but since I do not know this for sure, I would have a hard time spending my money on a whim. Therefore, YouTube appeals to me, and maybe if this deal completes itself, I could indeed become a cricket fan. Then, I would be more willing to pay a price for this service. Even though free media outlets do not generate as much profit as they could make through some system of either pay-per-view or pay-per-season, it will be more important to introduce cricket as a popular sport if it's easier for fans to access this material.

Please comment on this if you know much about cricket because I would love to learn more!