I don't know how long PDC has been doing this, but if it's quite a while now and Apple ignored them the whole time, then that makes it more likely that Google is the one putting pressure on Apple.
To that same note, I think there's probably quite a few developers (like myself) that were quite used to session videos from Microsoft conferences, that the lack of them when switching to Apple dev seemed like a big loss.
Perhaps they helped push Apple that way but as someone who went to WWDC10 with the expectation that I would unable to see the content otherwise as the videos were restricted to attendees (and or those who had an ADC Select/Premier account) it was kind of a shock they went that way finally. Especially because it was announced barely after the conference had exponentially faded from our memories.
Google I/O is pushing the boundaries of free again - live streaming to locally-organized developer parties in select Worldwide locations of major sessions and the keynotes.
