April 30, 2004
EU Seeks Access For New Media In Olympic Bids
European Union regulators are asking Olympic Games broadcasters and organizers for assurances that mobile phone and Internet operators are treated fairly during the bidding process for rights to show live images from this summer's Athens sports events, according to the WSJ.
"The EU's tactics are part of a campaign to broaden access to popular programming -- from Hollywood films to championship soccer -- and to provide relatively newer media with premium content to compete against television broadcasts.
Olympics officials say demand for new-media rights was weak because the market is still immature. "There's no queue of companies wanting to get online," said IOC's marketing director Michael Payne. He also said "there isn't the bandwidth" for proper coverage of the games across mobile phone networks".
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