It has acquired non-exclusive broadcast rights for public viewing at theatrical venues or cinemas on a pay basis.
It means the company can pick up the HDTV live feed at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Munich and distribute it to cinemas in 23 European countries. By co-operating with Euro1080, cinemas will be able to organise live, pay HDTV coverage of the tournament.
The deal was agreed with FIFA’s agents Infront Sports & Media, which handles the global sales of all broadcast rights for the 2006 World Cup worldwide.
Euro 1080 has also started talks with Official Broadcasters to deliver coverage in selected markets to home viewers in HD quality. Currently most households in Europe will receive the signal only in standard definition format (which does not have the same image quality).
Dominik A. Schmid, an executive director of Infront, said: “Infront is very happy about this initiative of Euro1080 as it supports the promotion of HDTV as the standard of the future.”
