The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it was considering allowing Internet companies to broadcast small sports on the Web.
Dick Pound, chairman of the IOC marketing commission, said “Internet broadcasting is possible for sports that do not get a minimum amount of coverage on television”.
For now the IOC does not allow Internet broadcasting, because it can’t be limited to geographic regions. The IOC sells its broadcasting rights per region and country.
Pound said that smaller sports could benefit from Web casting. “It’s in everyone’s interest to get as much coverage as possible” he said.
The IOC is looking at filtering software that limits access to Olympic web sites to geographic regions. The IOC believes that territorially restricted access to moving images of the Games will remain the preferred way to sell the rights of the Olympics.
But Pound added that Web casts should have a higher quality than the current blurred images that trickle through telephone copper wires, in order for the IOC to embrace the Inernet as a medium for moving images. He said “Web cast technology needs to improve fast”.
