BSkyB leads the way with first live international football webcast British Sky Broadcasting and the Scottish Gas Scottish Football Association today announced the first live webcast of an international football match across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The first leg of the Euro 2000 play-off between Scotland and England will be carried live on the Internet on skysports.co.uk from kick-off at 2pm Saturday, 13 November, sponsored by Ford.
The webcast will make the Hampden Park game - which is exclusively live to television viewers on Sky Sports 2 and in the interactive format on the Sky Sports Extra channel - available to football fans in the UK and Ireland with Internet access.
All Internet users have to do is ensure they have the free media player and then click through to the game's web page on the day of the big match.
BSkyB's Director of New Media, John Swingewood, said: "This pioneering webcast demonstrates Sky's innovation in the field of new media. We will increasingly use the Internet to add value to our broadcast programming."
Managing Director of Sky Sports, Vic Wakeling, said: "Sky has always embraced new technology to the benefit of both football and its fans. There has been massive, growing interest in Sky Sports Online, which now records between 20 and 30 million page impressions a month - compared with eight million a month last year."
Bill Wilson of the Scottish Football Association said: "We are delighted that Scottish football will be setting the standard this weekend, with Hampden Park the home of this first live webcast."
The webcast will be produced by Sky Sports and is powered by British Telecom and UUNET. An unprecedented amount of bandwidth has been allocated to this webcast, allowing thousands of football fans to log on and watch the game simultaneously.
Multi-camera coverage of the game will feature 35 different camera positions as well as super-slow motion replays. The match commentators will be Martin Tyler and Andy Gray.
