YouTube, Xbox to stream U.S. presidential debates

WASHINGTON —YouTube has announced it will stream the three debates between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, along with the vice presidential debate. No matter where you are in the world or how you’ll be accessing the Internet, you’ll be able to watch the most important events of the 2012 election on YouTube, the Google-owned video service.

Coverage begins with the first presidential debate in Denver, Colorado. YouTube will also stream the Oct 11 debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan, and the two remaining presidential debates on Oct 16 and 22.

A similar effort will be made by Microsoft’s Xbox Live through its own election hub, with users being offered the chance to submit comments and questions about the performance of the candidates.
Microsoft and its polling partner YouGov are capturing and sharing real-time data and feedback from the Xbox community, according to a statement from Microsoft.

Both Xbox and YouTube have launched a 2012 elections hub devoted to the November vote.
For the debates, YouTube will also stream commentary and analysis from its eight election hub partners ABC News, Al Jazeera English, BuzzFeed, Larry King, New York Times, Phil DeFranco, Univision and the Wall Street Journal. Univision will also offer a live version of the debates translated into Spanish.

A recent study showed YouTube has become a major platform around the world for news. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The Mountain View, California-based Internet giant has not yet announced a profit for the video-sharing site, despite its massive global popularity.