ITWire

The NBA has teamed with YouTube to create an "NBA Channel" on the site, offering game and behind-the-scenes footage. It's also encouraging fans to post videos of their own basketball feats. The agreement follows a similar deal between Google-owned YouTube and the National Hockey League late last year. Chelsea F.C. also recently became the first English Premiership football club to announce a deal with YouTube.

When asked whether similar deals are in the works with the NFL and Major League Baseball, Chris Maxcy, head of business development for YouTube, said to "stay tuned," reports the LA Times.

Not everything has gone YouTube's way of late. It lost Viacom (and thus MTV and Comedy Central) to rival video-sharing site Joost and deal with CBS also fell through. The site has also had run-ins with a number of other disgruntled copyright owners such as the Fox Network and the Japanese copyright lobby group JASRAC.

Undeterred, YouTube have gone back to basics. If content is king, sport is the king of kings - just ask any media mogul. Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy Manchester United to ensure broadcast rights for his pay TV networks, while Kerry Packer went as far as inventing World Series Cricket just so he could televise it. Old media giants were built on the back on sport, a lesson not lost on new media giants such as YouTube.

Sport is the perfect kind of content for a global network - it transcends language, race and even religion. To fight off the competition, YouTube knows it has to offer you the best seat in the house.