When over 10,000 athletes from around the world file into the Olympic Stadium before 110,000 spectators to celebrate the opening ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, American sports fans will be watching the event on NBC, CNBC or MSNBC. The same will remain true for each event and the closing ceremonies on September 15, as the network has purchased all broadcasting rights for the U.S. television audience from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for $705 million. Over the next two weeks, NBC will be recording thousands of hours of Olympic events and then broadcasting condensed, tape-delayed segments in the evening. This is due to the time difference between Australia and the U.S. — New York is 15 hours behind Sydney — and NBC's intention is to attract the largest number of TV viewers during the prime-time market.

While NBC is promising the best possible coverage of the Olympics through its affiliate family and cable networks, the terms of their exclusive broadcasting arrangement with the IOC have upset many media members, especially the Internet news and sports community. In addition to NBC's broadcast rights agreement, the IOC has prohibited Internet sites from offering live webcasting or streaming video of the games. To enforce this rule, the IOC refused to grant media credentials to online journalists, including those from ESPN.com and SportsLine, two of the largest Internet sites dedicated to covering sports. While the IOC admits that the barring of live Internet coverage is unfortunate, they maintain that it is technologically impossible to sell and regulate broadcasting rights to Internet-based media as it does with TV broadcasters who control exact geographic regions and audiences. The IOC is holding a conference in Lausanne, Switzerland this December to discuss possible Internet webcasting coverage of future Olympics.

On One Hand...

Considering that the IOC finances a significant portion of Olympic competitions through revenue generated through selling lucrative broadcast rights, they are obligated to ensure those contracts to their fullest ability, including barring Internet coverage. Having paid to secure the exclusive broadcasting rights for the Sydney Games, NBC has the right to protect their financial investment by limiting or even completely restricting the coverage of competing media entities.

Due to the all-encompassing nature of the Internet, it is currently impossible to control who and where people can receive information. This inability to control access to possible Internet Olympic coverage would make it difficult for networks to secure adequate advertising commitments to cover their investments in attaining broadcasting rights. Due to financial issues and technological problems with the Web, live Internet coverage of the games is impossible this year.

On the Other Hand...

For the IOC to expressly prohibit live Internet coverage of the Olympics is impractical and penalizes sports fans around the globe in search of more timely coverage of events. To protect the monetarily beneficial relationship between financing the Games, exclusive TV broadcasting contracts and related advertising revenues, the IOC is ignoring a massive and ever-expanding media outlet that could increase public interest and accessibility to live Olympic events. With this strategy that prevents competition, they are denying the Internet the chance to compete for lucrative advertising revenue that would help further develop the Web. The IOC must recognize that despite the growing size of the Internet, it will not replace TV as the most popular medium in the near future. Thus, they should look to integrate the Internet into Olympic coverage instead of outright forbidding it.