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Have you ever wanted to have your own “radio” show online and talk about sports?  A lot of people do, but it’s hard to reach a good audience especially if you are an amateur.  Back in 2007, Ariel Diaz, along with a few of his college alumni decided to create YouCastr.  YouCastr is a place where amateur, semi-professional, and professional users could talk about whatever sport related topics of their choosing. 

Later in February 2008, YouCastr went into their first beta and raised some money to further their developments.  I recently got the chance to catch up with Ariel Diaz, the CEO and Co-Founder of YouCastr, inc., and I asked him about the direction of YouCastr and the technology they use to make their goals come to fruition.  Without further ado, let’s get the questions and answers rolling. 

Gadgetell:  What makes YouCastr different from the other broadcasting services out there?

Ariel Diaz: YouCastr is incredibly easy to use, with no download required to broadcast, and no dedicated encoding box that many of our competitors require.  With our YouCastr Pro service, we also give broadcasters the ability to charge the audience through either pay-per-view or subscriptions.  We handle all of the payment processing and share the revenue back with the school, organization, or broadcaster.

Gadgetell:  What role does the widespread broadband Internet play in achieving your goal of streaming audio content?

Ariel Diaz: The spread of broadband is vital to our growth, especially as we focus more on streaming video content.  In 2008, for the first time ever, over 50% of US households had broadband internet access.  This growth helps expand our potential market, and get potential viewers comfortable with the Internet as a distribution platform. 

Gadgetell:  What other technologies does YouCastr plan to implement for your users? i.e. video streaming, roundtable discussions.

Ariel Diaz: Our YouCastr Pro service introduces live video broadcasting, as well as the ability for broadcasters to make money.  In the short term we plan on offering HD broadcasting, the ability to see detailed analytics of the audience consumption, and customizable hosted areas.  Down the road we have several additional exciting features that we can’t get into right now.

Gadgetell:  Do you think YouCastr appeals to amateur broadcasters or professional ones?

Ariel Diaz: We’ve seen both amateurs and professionals on our site.  There are amateurs who want to get some practice, build a portfolio and a following, and maybe parlay it into a career.  We have sports radio stations, which are mainly professional broadcasters.  And we have also seen many independent semi-professional broadcasters, who broadcast local sporting events through deals they have directly with schools and teams.  With our upcoming launch of YouCastr Pro, we want to serve these independent broadcasters even better by giving them the opportunity to make money. 

Gadgetell:  Who is interested in following high school, college and youth sports, and how do they find out about YouCastr?

Ariel Diaz: For live event broadcasts, the audiences tend to be family members and friends of the athletes, alumni of the school, and local fans.  The most successful broadcasters are able to bring their own audience, for example from a blog they write or a website they manage.  A lot of schools also use other means of promotion, including social networks, printing flyers to hang around the school, and school announcements, to help spread the word.

Gadgetell:  In addition to broadcasting, what other services does YouCastr provide?

Ariel Diaz: YouCastr also has a lot of social tools that make it easy for users to interact with each other, through live chat during broadcasts, private messaging, and boards throughout the site.  We give users the ability to write articles, upload pictures, upload audio or video files, and create a profile.  And of course, we make it easy to share content with widgets, RSS feeds, and podcast syndication tools.

Gadgetell:  Do you plan to let users broadcast about topics other than sports?

Ariel Diaz: Sports content, especially sporting events, is extremely attractive.  It is generally safe content for advertisers, has loyal fans in a desirable demographic, and has an audience with a strong desire to watch it live.  We have looked at other areas of content, but for the foreseeable future, we are continuing to focus exclusively on sports. 

Gadgetell:  Lastly, what does the future hold for YouCastr?

Ariel Diaz: Our immediate focus is on launching our YouCastr Pro service.  Following that, we will be focusing on growing the number of high schools, colleges, club teams, and tournaments using our service.  There is a huge opportunity out there to help schools and teams broadcast their games to the loyal family, alumni, and fans.  Our goal is to expand the availability of sports broadcasting using the Internet as a platform, the same way the advent of cable television expanded the sports broadcasting opportunities by offering round the clock sports coverage.

Gadgetell:  Thanks for taking the time and answering these questions, do you have any last words for our readers?

Ariel Diaz: Well thank you for offering us the opportunity for the interview.  At YouCastr we’re motivated by using new technology to open up a whole new world of sports broadcasting, making the sports more accessible to parents, family members, fans, and even athletes themselves.  This is something that is really only possible now, with today’s digital video cameras, the cost of bandwidth, browser-based encoders, and broadband penetration.  Exciting times for sure!  I also encourage all of you readers to check out the site, spread the word to your local schools and teams, and stay tuned for the exciting updates we’re launching soon!

If you have any questions about the YouCastr service, feel to ask them below in the forums.  If you already use YouCastr, let us know what you think of the service!

Read [YouCastr]