‘End to free sport e-casts’

This year’s FIFA World Cup will be the last major sporting event for which there will be no formal negotiations over online broadcasting rights, according to industry observers.

The New Media Sportscasting Summit starts today (Wednesday), as the sports industry looks at ways to generate more revenue streams through new media.

Aura Sports managing director Paul Wright, a speaker at the conference, says this year’s World Cup is a tipping point regarding the sports industry’s relationship with new media. “This will be the last major event for which broadcast rights over the Net have not been agreed.”

He says sports bodies and football clubs are committed to online content, but says with the growing take-up of broadband, the sports industry will embrace the Net in the same way the music industry has done.