The IFL and YouTube

by Luke Thomas on Nov 14, 2007 2:25 PM EST in News Comment 4 comments

They're forming a partnership:

The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI - News), the world's number one team-based professional mixed martial arts league, and YouTube, the world's leading video sharing Website, today announced a video sharing partnership designed to expose IFL content to a larger worldwide audience. It is the first partnership YouTube has formed in the sport of mixed martial arts, and follows the path of similar partnerships with the NBA, NHL, CBS and EA Sports among others.

"We are very excited to be able to add YouTube and Google Ads as our partners," said IFL co-founder and CEO Gareb Shamus. "Compelling content is key to success, and this partnership gives us the opportunity to expose our athletes, coaches and events to a much larger audience than ever before with compelling content we know this demo loves to view."

The partnership will provide IFL content to thousands of websites around the globe that use Google AdSense and YouTube players. The partnership will also include working with Google and YouTube in a revenue sharing model that would allow the IFL to generate income from advertisements shown in conjunction with its videos. The videos will be available on YouTube as well as other Google AdSense partner sites that cover the sport.

Fightlinker pans the move, pointing out how his website's uploaded homemade videos receive dramatically more hits. All true, except that actually proves the merit of this union. Unlike the UFC, which scorns the Internet and frowns upon sharing its content in multimedia platforms that aren't its own, the IFL is leveraging the power of the Internet. The case of the IFL could still be too little, too late, but that hardly matters here. Allowing YouTube visitors to freely view IFL content can only enhance their exposure and build a positive relationship with net users. Lastly, it's also not a bad way to bring in a few desperately needed dollars.

I'm not suggesting this is the salvation the IFL was looking for, but it's certainly good for the fans as well as the company. Well done.

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