By Ben King, 29 April 2002 16:50
NEWS Football fans will only be able to watch match highlights from this summer's World Cup on the web, Fifa announced today. Supporters who want to watch matches on the internet can buy access to special four-minute highlights packages from each of the 64 World Cup matches, with commentary in six languages, for just $19.95 (£13.66). The highlights will be available each day from 16:30(BST), about two hours after the last match finishes. Fans expecting full matches on the web will be disappointed. The rights holder, KirchSport AG, is only making highlights available. A Fifa spokesman said: "We would probably have offered full coverage but those rights weren't on the table." The package it is offering will also include other content, such as exclusive interviews and documentaries, searchable archives, screensavers and competitions with tickets to the final as prizes. There will also be 10-minute highlight packages from previous World Cups starting with England's epic triumph at Wembley in 1966. A searchable archive will allow users to search for video clips by category, for example David Beckham's goals (if he scores any). The videos will be streamed at up to 300Mbps bandwidth, in all the major formats. The site is built to handle more than 1,000,000 users at a time, and the team behind it is expecting "six figure traffic", a spokesman said. Fifa's official website, FIFAworldcup.com, has announced the offer in a deal with the official rights holder, KirchSport AG, and Yahoo! The future of the World Cup broadcasting rights were uncertain when the holder, German media giant KirchMedia, filed for insolvency earlier this month. The rights now belong to KirchSport AG, a Swiss-based holding company which is not taking part in the insolvency proceedings.
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