Media

Member federations of the International Olympic Committee(IOC) have been commenting on the issues raised by the IOC World Conference on Sports and New Media in Lausanne, Switzerland.

European Union leaders are ready this week to recognise that sport enjoys a special status in the bloc, but will fall short of granting it any exceptions from EU law.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was considering allowing Internet companies to broadcast small sports on the Web.

German media giant Kirch's acquisition of a stake in EM.TV is unlikely to fall under a European Commission merger review, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

China's capital Beijing has spent billions of dollars this year widening and extending roads to pave the way for its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the Xinhua news agency has reported.

Sportal, the European based provider of interactive sports content, has secured a strategic alliance with PSN Multimedia International.

Websites have already established themselves as the fundamental means of communication for sports teams beyond their national boundaries, disintermediating the need for broadcasters, according to evidence presented by speakers at the IOC New Media Conference in Lausanne.

The International Olympic Committee added another condition for the next round of broadcast bidders looking to deliver the Olympic Games after 2008, but the requirement to take account of the importance of the internet and new media in their bids will have many reaching for their crystal balls.

The XFL, the new ?extreme? American Football League co-owned by Vince McMahon?s WWFE and NBC, will kick off on February 3 2001 in front of a global television audience.

UK commercial sports station TalkSPORT can continue to broadcast commentary of major sporting events off the TV as it did during Euro 2000, even if the BBC has rights to the event.

SportsLine.com CEO and founder Mike Levy cast a doubt on the value of team web sites when he told delegates it was doubtful SportsLine would renew its association with the San Francisco 49ers web site.

Beijing has started radio English lessons to get its citizens up to speed in the race for the 2008 Olympic Games, according to local reports.

A leading executive with Olympic TOP sponsors Coca-Cola has called on the IOC and NBC to jointly design a new model for leveraging the advertising power of new media.

Eurosport.com has signed a new strategic partnership with tennis.net, part of the Umbrella Media group.

German media giant Kirch and media group EM.TV & Merchandising could raise $1 billion to exercise an option to buy a further 25 percent stake in Formula One holding SLEC, Kirch vice president Dieter Hahn has said.

Greek Olympic chief Gianna Angelopoulos said on Monday that the sudden resignation of her number two would not upset the Athens 2004 Games preparations.