LAUSANNE, Switzerland — After being virtually shut out of the Sydney Games, Internet companies are making the case this week to old media and Olympic executives for greater online video and coverage rights.
But their progress may not be much smoother than the jerky performance of Internet video streaming via modem connection.
"This is another step in the process of gradual education rather than anything momentous," said Marcus Leaver, chief executive of the European online sports service Rivals.net. "I think that this will be step and not lurch."
Officials from the U.S. network NBC and other broadcasters, the International Olympic Committee, Rivals.net and other new media are debating the Olympics' Internet future in a meeting Sunday through Tuesday in Lausanne.
During this year's Olympics, officials prevented Web sites from offering even short audio reports featuring competition. Sites could not run video and audio highlights — though those same feeds were permitted on television and radio.
The IOC allowed online video coverage of events only by NBC, and then only with a 24-hour delay under a closed network that limited distribution to about 100,000 U.S. households.
"We believe that the approach they adopted for the Sydney Olympics, basically to bar the video coverage on the Internet unless it was controlled by NBC, was fatally flawed," said Gavin Chittick, chief financial officer the European Internet site, Sports.com.
Chittick, whose company is 20 percent owned by an affiliate of NBC's rival, CBS, said he would be pressing also to get Internet companies "greater access to future Olympic events, particularly in regard to accreditation of journalists."
NBC and other traditional broadcasters have a big stake. NBC bought U.S. television rights for Olympic Games through 2008 for $3.5 billion.
And the IOC is keen on maintaining good relations with broadcasters, who accounted for 51 percent of all revenue from the Sydney Games, $1.33 billion of the overall $2.6 billion.
NBC wants to block other online media from providing video to customers in the United States, which, given the borderless nature of the Internet, could mean customers anywhere.
"As far as the United States goes, we would like to keep our video rights over the Internet," said NBC spokesman Mike McCarley.
As for granting new media accreditation to enter the Olympic grounds to interview athletes and provide other coverage, that's "a question for the IOC," McCarley said.