UEFA: Streaming football is not the way forward
October 19, 2009
UEFA have said that the experiment to screen the Ukraine v England 2010 World Cup qualifier on the Internet is not the solution for the future.
About 500,000 fans paid to watch England play Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier on the Internet last weekend. It was the first England game to be shown exclusively online. Kentaro, appointed by the Ukrainian Football Federation, sold the UK rights for the game to digital sport firm Perform following the collapse of broadcaster Setanta.
“I think it will be a model for some properties along with other ways of displaying pay per view. For me, it was not really an event, it was just showing that Internet is totally valid as a method like any other broadcasting method," said Alexandre Fourtoy, CEO of UEFA Media Technologies.
Fourtoy noted that there were ongoing issues with Internet piracy, with companies offering illegal streams of live football games online. “90 per cent don’t know that they are pirates. Most of them are kids, who show it to their friends," he said.
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