Remember those old days, grampa Internet, when you used to have to watch SportsCenter on ESPN to see video highlights of the day’s best plays? Remember them slightly newer days, daddio, when you could go online and maybe see some sketchy vid-clips of broadcast games before they were taken down?
No? Me neither. I’ve completely forgotten those days of 2011 and now just rely on Twitter and YouTube for my sports highlights coverage — like for instance, today’s incredible finish of the always classic Duke vs. North Carolina matchup. Within minutes, the official, ESPN approved clip is on YouTube — commercial free!
I’m not sure if this dims overall ESPN viewership numbers — by all recent accounts there is nothing but an upward curve for ESPN content viewership — so it makes sense for ESPN, instead of online pirateers, to take advantage of the Internet replays that are going to happen anyhow. Seems like the NBA agrees with this approach as well.
Somewhere in here there are the seeds of a discussion about how YouTube is becoming, or has become, the new sports network — and I’d spend time writing about it when I am done watching some Shaun White clips of sick snowboard stunts. Talk amongst yourselves.
[…] been asking the question about whether or not YouTube is becoming the next big de facto sports network, and Bleacher Report seems to agree with the idea — at least the news today about B/R […]