12 Oct 2009England internet match hailed as a success

Football Sponsors/ Sponsorship and Media | Football Supporters News

England's FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine attracted a record number of viewers for an internet broadcast.

With approximately 500,000 football fans thought to have watched the game in Dnipropetrovsk on Saturday (October 10th), international football agency Kentaro and media group Perform described the event as "a great success".

Kentaro was appointed to sell the rights to the match by the Ukrainian Football Federation and initially made a deal with Setanta, but Perform stepped in after the broadcaster went into administration earlier this year.

Philipp Grothe, chief executive of Kentaro, said that the football broadcast was a "pioneering" example of how games will be viewed in the future.

"Technology has ignited a revolution in people's viewing habits and there is a new sports broadcast platform developing on the broadband-enabled internet," he commented.

Fans who did not subscribe to watch the match online were able to see some of the action on Saturday night, as the BBC made a late decision to show a highlights programme.

England lost the game 1-0, with Sergiy Nazarenko scoring for Ukraine after Robert Green had been sent off and Andriy Shevchenko missed a penalty.

Written by Paul Roberts

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