Over the past two years, we’ve been proud to watch our service grow and evolve into a unique and interactive sports network. This experience has led us to focus on an area where we can continue to make the most impact: broadcasting sporting events that are not available anywhere else.

Introducing the New YouCastr
The new YouCastr is a sports broadcasting service that makes it easy for schools, clubs, tournaments and other sports teams to broadcast video and audio of their sporting events over the web. The service also enables schools and teams to earn money to support their athletic programs by integrating pay-per-view functionality. To learn more about the new YouCastr, visit www.youcastr.com.

Transition
As a result of our new focus, we are phasing out the existing YouCastr Beta Interactive Sports Network on April 17. All of the content (audio and text) will no longer be available after that date. If you have been primarily broadcasting and following live sporting events, the new YouCastr is right for you. However, we understand that the new service will not meet the needs of some of our existing users, and we will make the transition as smooth as possible for those of you.

During the transition period, you will have access to all of your content, and can save it in a number of ways:

• Audio Podcast: Archive all of your broadcasts through the podcast feature in our site, which will automatically download the podcasts to your favorite player, such as iTunes
• Audio Download: Download individual events or show episodes directly and save them as mp3 files.
• Articles Archiving: If you’d like to save your existing articles and columns, you can subscribe to your articles via RSS and save them in your favorite RSS reader

More information
We’d like to thank all of you for being part of YouCastr, and hope to see many of you continue the journey with us. If you’d like more information about the new service or have questions about the transition, please contact us at info@youcastr.com.

We’re excited about the future of sports broadcasting!

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In this challenging economy, athletic budgets are coming under significant pressure and many schools are considering or having to even eliminate teams.  YouCastr, the high school broadcasting service, provides and opportunity for schools to earn money from broadcasting their games while providing a great service to parents, alumni and fans.

How can schools earn money?  For a LOW COST ($50 per year), YouCastr allows schools to have unlimited video and audio broadcasting of their sporting events with Pay Per View.  The school sets the price and earns 50% of the revenue.  If a school broadcast just 8 varsity teams, averages 2 paid viewers per player, and charges $4 per event, the school would earn $15,000!  If the school broadcasts JV games as well, the ROI could easily be $30,000.

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Over the past few months, we’ve seen a huge influx of high school, college, and youth sporting events broadcast over our audio platform. Much of the feedback we have gotten from you, our users, has been about your needs for live video broadcasting and the ability to make money broadcasting.

As a result, today we are very excited to announce the release of our newest offering: YouCastr.com. YouCastr allows you to broadcast live video of your school’s games online even more easily than what you’ve become accustomed to on YouCastr. Plus, you can now earn money for live and archived broadcasts!

YouCastrSports.com and YouCastr.com are separate sites — YouCastr Sports is NOT meant to be a social networking site and there is no cross-syndication of content between the two. Your content and account on YouCastr does not transfer over to YouCastrSports and vice versa. Here are some quick highlights of the brand-new YouCastr Sports:

• All you need is a digital camcorder and an Internet connection
• You can make money broadcasting from Pay Per View sports
• Live broadcasts are all automatically archived
• Ther service starts at just $5/month or $50/year for unlimited live video broadcasts
• There are still audience-engaging features like live chat

If you know anyone interested in broadcasting school sports, please pass this message along to them. It’s a great way to earn extra money, which everyone can look forward to these days.

We’re incredibly excited about our new offering and are looking forward to seeing you cover your local school’s games on the site. Email me at kkeller@youcastr.com if you have any questions at all on the new service.

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Yesterday, I was able to test our new YouCastr Pro service , a sports broadcasting platform that incorporates the ability to do live video broadcasting and the option to earn money by charging viewers and listeners (pay per view).

I cannot tell you how excited I was during the test. Why? Sure the live video and monetization features are great, but what excited me the most was how simple it was to use. Without any assistance, I was able to set-up and broadcast live video. Ease of use is something we strive for at YouCastr and the product team did not disappoint. With this new service, I have no doubt that hundreds of high schools, colleges, and club teams will find YouCastr the place to broadcast high school sports, broadcast college sports, and broadcast youth sports and tournaments.

If you are interested in beta testing this new service or being one of our first customers, please contact me at bjohnson@youcastr.com.

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Sometimes talking about sports can come easy to sports broadcasters, but spreading the word about your big guests, crazy rants, and clever angles may be a bit more difficult. To develop a solid audience, you need to get out there and let people know your live sports broadcasting is happening. We have a general list on your profile of how to promote your content both on YouCastr and using other social media platforms, but there’s far more you could do. Here are a few of our top tips:

For School Events

For Talk Shows

There are tons of ways to let people know what you’re doing, but these are just a few we’ve heard the largest listening numbers come from. So get out there, be creative, and promote yourself!

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The YouCastr Awards

The First Annual YouCastr Awards have officially come and gone, and they were quite the event. GMoftheYear and Seriew79 put together an incredible show, doing a great job honoring the best sports broadcasters from 2008. Whether the live sports broadcasts come from a professional studio like BLeuthner, from a laptop on a built-in-mic like Mastershake, interviewing big-time athletes on Skype like NHL 2Day, or at the game itself like T-Man, all sorts of sports fans everywhere have done an excellent job talking about their sports, their way this year on YouCastr. 

We want to thank everyone for their participation, and we want to congratulate all the winners of the YouCastr Awards, as voted on by the community: 

Most Passionate Sports Fan - Buffbillsfan�
Best Show Not Enough People Listen To - The Smoke Break (by Seriew79)�
Most Creative - Alupiani�
Best Show Production - TheFWordShow�
Most Knowledgeable Castr - Mastershake�
Best On-Air Chemistry - TheFWordShow�
Best Writer - Jon Alba�
Best Event Castr - Mastershake�
Best Show - Rock Hard Fantasy (by GMoftheYear)�
Best Castr - BLeuthner 

Feedback

As some of you may know, we are getting ready to launch our live video and professional broadcasting services. In order to help us better understand the right features and pricing for our upcoming offering, we are conducting a survey of students, parents, alumni, and fans. The survey only takes 5-10 minutes, and will be really valuable for us, plus it will give you a sneak peak at our upcoming service. We have three surveys: 

If you fit in more than one category, feel free to fill out more than one survey.

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As some of you may know, we are getting ready to launch our live video and professional broadcasting services. In order to help us better understand the right features and pricing for our upcoming offering, we are conducting a survey of students, parents, alumni, and fans. The survey only takes 5-10 minutes, and will be really valuable for us, plus it will give you a sneak peak at our upcoming service.  Please go the the “surveys” tab on this blog and complete the survey that is most appropriate for you.

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January 6th was an incredible night in the history of YouCastr, the online sports network. Two users, GMoftheYear and Seriew79, hosted the first ever YouCastr Awards. Each of the nominees and award recipients should be congratulated for their innovative and entertaining broadcasts throughout 2008. However, what really was amazing was the award show itself - produced and hosted by two users with many of their online friends listening in and interacting in support of the nominees and winners. YouCastr sports broadcasters are creating entertaining shows, interviewing prominent athletes and other sports personalities, broadcasting all types of sporting events around the world, and just today I heard that a radio station is going to begin syndicating a YouCastr broadcaster. With live video and broadcaster monetization coming soon, the innovation will only continue.

Thanks and congratulations to all the award recipients.

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Before truly starting off 2009 at YouCastr, we’ve been working on officially capping off the year that was in live sports broadcasting in 2008 with the first annual YouCastr Awards! On Tuesday January 6th, GMoftheYear and Seriew79 will be announcing all the best of the best of YouCastr in 2008, as voted on by the community. From the “most passionate sports fan,” to the “best show production,” and to the top prize of “best sports broadcaster,” the voting is really heating up. To get involved, checkout the official nominees, as selected by the community, and message me your votes. It will be an all night event on YouCastr beginning with a red carpet show leading up to the awards show. You won’t want to miss this. The voting period ends at 11:59PM January 4th, so send me your votes now! 

Also, we’re continually working to add quality content to The YouCastr Sports Network, with one of our newest additions Danny Picard hosting I’m Just Saying on YouCastr weeknights from 6-8PM EST. Currently, Picard covers the Boston Bruins for The Boston Globe’s weekly sports magazine - OT, with experience on 1510 The Zone, the New England Hockey Journal, and The Patriot Ledger as well. He’ll be bringing some big time guests on the show, along with a variety of awesome segments. Make sure to check out Picard, joined by his longtime producer/personality Adam Jenness, starting January 5th at 6PM.�

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YouCastr is proud to announce the launch of its newest show - “I’m Just Saying” with Danny Picard -  a worldwide sports talk show focused on bringing a fresh new voice to sports fans all over the internet.

Danny Picard serves as the host of “I’m Just Saying” – a two-hour worldwide sports talk internet program dedicated to bringing a new perspective to sports fans all over the web. He is joined by his longtime producer/personality, and fellow South Boston native, Adam Jenness. Picard is also the Boston Bruins beat writer for The Boston Globe’s weekly sports magazine – OT. Picard has extensive experience in sports broadcasting and is a 2007 graduate of The University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he served as the sports editor and a sports writer of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, where he broke news regarding Roger Clemens’ return to baseball in 2006. He can be reached at dpicard@youcastr.com.

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