The NFL's Webcasts of six NFL games to Internet users
in the Netherlands, Austria and Singapore this past Sunday
made it "the first major U.S. sports league to broadcast
television feeds of live games on the Internet," according
to David Sweet of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. NFL Enterprises
Senior VP/Market Development Tola Murphy-Baran said the
"signals came through beautifully," which means the league
has "a future with this project." The audience in Europe
"was small," as "only a few subscribers to Chello Broadband
NV" could watch the live games delivered by cable modem.
Murphy-Baran: "Employees [at Chello] were staying around the
office to watch the end of Minnesota-Green Bay at 1 a.m."
For the first half of the season, the NFL games "will be
Webcast for free." A PPV model will be presented in
November. Chello plans to promote the games during street
fairs in the Netherlands and Austria. Murphy-Baran: "We
sent them NFL goodies, like pens and magnets, to hand out to
get some excitement going." The NFL "plans to expand the
program" next season, with the U.K. and Hong Kong "early
contenders" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/29). BROADCASTING &
CABLE's Richard Tedesco notes "the potential audience with
fast Web connections in Europe and Asia is small, but
growing." Forrester Research Web entertainment analyst Mark
Hardie: "They'll take the fans one at a time" (B&C, 9/27).
