Ustream Partners with Universal Sports Network

Ustream Inc., a provider of live, interactive, streaming video, will partner with Universal Sports Network for live coverage of the 2012 Alpine Ski World Cup.

The partnership will also include additional sports including coverage of the HSBC Sevens World Series rugby matches with the next match set for March 23 to 25 in So Kon Po, Hong Kong.

Universal Sports Network provides more than 1,200 hours of original programming each year for its world-class Olympic, endurance and adventure programming from around the world.

“Ustream brings a valuable mix of social interaction and strong viewership to the sporting events that will be available on Universal Sports’ channel,” said Bart Leivo, vice president of business development for Universal Sports. “We’re excited to be working with a leader in live, interactive video like Ustream and taking our content to the next level of social engagement.”

In addition to the Alpine Ski World Cup and Rugby Sevens events, the  partnership provides Ustream  viewers with access to many of Universal Sports Network’s top sporting events including the Swimming Grand Prix, CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying soccer tournament, World Figure Skating Championships, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana, and VISA National Championships (gymnastics), among many others. Access to live streaming can be found on www.ustream.tv/alpineseasonpass and through UniversalSports.com.

“Ustream’s partnership with Universal Sports has proven to be a successful one,” said Wayne Sieve, vice president of content partnerships for Ustream. “Given the performance of our initial collaboration around the Rugby World Cup, we were thrilled to extend the relationship in distributing their 2012 programming to our network of 51 million unique viewers.”