IOC will hold world summit on 'new media and sport'

The International Olympic Committee plans to hold a world conference in November on the role of the Internet and other "new media" in sports.

IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said in Lausanne, Switzerland today that the IOC and other sports bodies must find a way to keep pace with the rapidly changing world of media technology.

"At the moment, we are lost," Samaranch said. "We are worried what can happen in the future."

More than 200 people from around the world - including representatives of the IOC, international sports federations, news organisations and Internet companies - will be invited to the November 16-17 "New Media and Sport" conference in Lausanne.

The idea for the conference was finalised at a meeting of IOC officials today and is expected to be formally approved by the IOC executive board this week.

IOC vice president Dick Pound, who negotiates the organisation's major television and sponsorship deals, said the conference will help the IOC develop its own long-term Internet strategy.

"This is a business that reinvents itself every six months," Pound said. "You have to be careful before taking the plunge."

The IOC has grappled for the past two years on how best to utilise the Internet.

The IOC has its own web site, as do the organising commmittees of the 2000 Sydney Olympics and other future games.

The IOC is eager to maximize its potential revenue from the worldwide web, including the possible sale of Internet rights, while protecting its exclusive television partners.

NBC paid $3.5 billion for exclusive US television rights to five Olympics from 2000 to 2008.

The IOC currently prohibits the showing of moving images from the games on the Internet.

"We are very interested to see what happens after 2008," Samaranch said.

The November conference will be the second world summit organised by the IOC in two years. In February 1999, the IOC held a world anti-doping conference in Lausanne.