Olympic Mobile Video Rights Up For Grabs For The First Time
The consortium of broadcasters that holds the European rights for the Olympics has opened up bids for mobile rights to the 2006 winter and 2008 summer Olympics, which would give winners the rights to broadcast moving pictures of the Olympics to mobiles for the first time. The demand for mobile TV remains in serious doubt, but live sporting events are one area where there could be an opportunity for providers to attract users. After seeing sporting events like the Super Bowl give a big boost to HDTV sales, and Europeans watching more of the 2004 summer games — an average of 14 hours over 17 days — than ever before, it wouldn’t be surprising for mobile carriers to see the Olympics as the event that puts mobile TV and video on the map in a major way, and drive bids up accordingly.
