BBC To Show World Cup Games Live On Broadband

The BBC has signed an exclusive deal with Infront Sports & Media, the company responsible for the worldwide marketing and sales of the broadcast rights to the World Cup, to allow viewers to watch its games live on broadband.

All of the BBC’s group games will be available to stream on its World Cup homepage, as will all the subsequent games the BBC has rights for in the knockout stages. The BBC also has exclusive rights for England’s second round and quarter-final games if England manage to surprise everyone and get that far.

It also has non-exclusive rights to show four-minute clips from all of the 64 matches, which will be available on-demand so viewers can watch Peter Crouch doing his utterly outrageous robotic dance moves whenever they feel like it.

Roger Mosey, BBC director of sport, said: “Our audiences now expect to get BBC Sport on television, on radio and online, and the World Cup on broadband is our biggest commitment yet to bringing people major events where and when they want them. You can watch the World Cup from the BBC at home on TV, or listen in the car on your radio, and now also see full live coverage on your PC.

“We know a lot of online viewing is done in the office, so we suspect this will allow people both to do their job and to keep up with the very latest action from Germany.”

This deal follows on from last week’s announcement that the corporation had done a similar deal for the Wimbledon tennis tournament and comes at a time when other broadcasters are questioning the BBC’s use of its unique funding (see BBC Director General Outlines Ambition).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk