Websites rob TV of football exclusives

When the England football team play Belarus in the World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, neither the BBC nor ITV will cover the game. Under the FA's current contract, only the 1.5 million subscribers to the subscription channel Setanta will be able to watch the match live. Even a Scot - Gordon Brown - has labelled as "unfortunate" this virtual blackout of the national sport.

However, tens of thousands of fans will watch Wednesday's match live on the internet, just as they did recently when England's Theo Walcott demolished Croatia in Zagreb.

It is illegal, but 'streaming' football on the internet has come of age.
Whether it is England playing, or a Premiership or Champions League match, if it is being shown on TV anywhere, it will be available - free - online.

Fan-driven sites like justin.tv and veetle.com are providing the service, rebroadcasting TV signals or using webcams pointed to televisions

using peer-to-peer software.

Because there are huge sums at stake, the authorities will use the courts. The Premier League have already obtained bankruptcy orders against five streaming sites.

But with new sites springing up, will the football industry have to face up to the culture of the internet just as the music industry has had to come to terms with downloading? Chris Curtis of Broadcast magazine reckons that, as yet, streaming is more of an irritation to the big boys than a threat.

"There is no need to tear up their business model," he says. "Only when the internet signal can play through your TV will it become
a problem for these guys."

That is at least year away in Britain, where broadband speeds are too slow for internet protocol television (IPTV). But it is the norm in Hong Kong where 90 English Premier League games are shown on broadband TV, in high-definition.