Said Paul Henderson, president of the International Sailing Federation: "I started our website in 1995 and back then I thought it was going to be a real moneymaker but now I'm convinced it will remain a communication tool."
Currently the IOC does not allow internet broadcasting, because it cannot be limited to geographic regions, so conflicting with television rights holders. The IOC sells its broadcasting rights per region and country.
"Those sports that aren't televised have a major interest in the internet, it's the only way to communicate their sport," said Gian Franco Kasper, president of the International Ski Federation. "For small sports the internet is extremely important.
"Even in our federation, we see how keen a sport like freestyle skiing is to embrace the internet.
"For the foreseeable future there is no money to be made, potentially I believe there will be but right now people are just trying to understand what is happening."
Kimmo Leinonen, marketing director for the International Ice Hockey Federation, added: "It would be very hard to make money on the internet. It's everyone's dream but it's not easy.
"You cannot make money with pictures and info - you have to have something more."
Chairman of the IOC marketing commission, Dick Pound said " Television allowed 3.7 billion people to experience the Olympics while only 25 million experienced part of it on the Internet. And there is no revenue model for broadcasting on the Internet.
"Internet broadband is not ready yet and television remains the engine."
But Pound later conceded that the IOC was considering allowing Internet companies to broadcast smaller Olympic sports on the Web.
Member federations of the International Olympic Committee(IOC) have been commenting on the issues raised by the IOC World Conference on Sports and New Media in Lausanne, Switzerland.
