Football to be shown on TV and internet simultaneously
July 19, 2005
By Daniel Farey-Jones
Revolution Magazine
http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=ViewNewsArticle&newsID=486728
LONDON From 2006 top European football matches will have to be shown on
the internet at the same time as they are televised live, and by the same
broadcaster, the body governing the Champions League has specified.
The condition, imposed by Uefa, applies to the rights to televise Champions
League games in the UK for the three seasons between 2006 and 2009.
The soon-to-be-announced winners are expected to be BSkyB and ITV, which
share Champions League games in the current deal.
The next deal is likely to see the two broadcasters share out matches
again, but the new ingredient is the internet broadcast.
It will be another significant step in the development of TV over the
internet, which is gathering pace as companies such as BT, the BBC and
Channel 4 work towards distributing TV content over broadband.
The development is also significant for handing online sports rights to
broadcasters, rather than the leading clubs, which make money by selling
highlights packages via their own websites, but have never been given live
rights by Uefa.
However, Sky looks more prepared to move online than ITV, having announced
it will provide a TV-over-broadband service to its premium package
subscribers later this year. ITV's focus has so far been on adding extra
digital TV channels to ITV1 and ITV2.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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