Sport calls for referee in ‘virtual publicity’ debate

Date: 23/11/1995

SOPHISTICATED new technology which allows broadcasters to replace advertising billboards at sporting events with images seen only by television viewers is set to alter dramatically the world of sports sponsorship.

The development of technology - enabling companies to show different advertisements on television screens in each country where a particular sports event is broadcast - is turning the traditional relationship between event organisers, advertisers and broadcasters on its head.

This is already posing a number of ethical and commercial questions which may need regulatory responses.

But the European Commission, keen not to hamper European innovation, wants to minimise its regulatory role, despite pleas from the organisers of sports events for it to act as referee.

Until now, event organisers have had exclusive control over the sponsorship of games. They have always decided which billboards or banners appear on the side of pitches and courses, and how much firms should pay for displaying their names on them.

But a new system known as Epsis, developed by the French company Symah Vision, looks set to change all that. With broadcasters now able to tinker with reality, event organisers are worried that their hold on sports sponsorship will be loosened. Epsis is seen by them as yet another off-side attempt to encroach on their territory.

The new system raises a number of important commercial and ethical questions, such as whether television stations should be forced to tell viewers that what they see on their screens is not an accurate representation of reality.

The most pressing dilemma facing regulators is the question of who should control the rights for television-only publicity.

“The question which needs to be resolved is whether broadcasters or sports events organisers should have control over 'virtual' publicity,” explains one sports organiser.

Worried that this new brand of publicity will be classified as television advertising and, as a result, be controlled by broadcasters, sports organisers are appealing to the Commission to act.

But the Commission is taking a cautious approach, according to sources who say that, while its response has not yet been cast in stone, it plans to only blow its regulatory whistle if the play gets rough. With rival American and Israeli systems hot on the heels of Epsis, the Commission is anxious not to put too many regulatory hurdles in the way of the French company.

It acknowledges sports organisers' rights to control publicity, real or otherwise, but thinks broadcasters, organisers and advertisers should decide among themselves how to share out additional revenue.

That should keep broadcasters, who have been pressing for a flexible approach, happy.

They are playing down their ambitions to conquer the world of virtual sports advertising.

“If broadcasters were to change the advertisements without consulting the event organisers, then sure it would be dramatic. But we have absolutely no intention of doing that. We believe that there should always be an agreement between the three parties,” said Michel Grigoir, of the European Group of Television Advertisers.

Symah Vision, meanwhile, is trumpeting its system as the best thing since Eric Cantona.

Executives there expect it to bring in hundreds of millions of ecu in extra revenue from advertising to a global business already worth over two billion ecu a year. They argue Epsis will give advertisers more flexibility by, for instance, allowing them to prevent tobacco panels being shown on broadcasts transmitted to countries where cigarette advertisements are banned by screening an alternative advertisement.

“The wonderful thing about this product is that it will allow publicity campaigns to adapt to the mosaic of European culture,” said Pierre Plevin of Symah Vision.

The technique was tried for the first time earlier this year at the Tour of Spain cycle race, which was shown live throughout Europe. When Abraham Olano crossed the finishing line, he sped under a banner bearing the name of a Spanish beer, Aguila. But television spectators in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Italy saw him cycle under an Amstel beer banner. The Heineken group which owns both beers, was the first company to put Epsis to the test.

The system could also help advertisers like BNP, the main sponsor of the French open tennis tournament, which only does business in Europe and will in future be able to save money by renting banner space to American companies on broadcasts destined for the US.