Hawk-Eye is the best broadcast sport technology of the past decade, according to a report conducted for tier one internet provider Level 3 Communications.
The ball-tracking technology, which is used in cricket and tennis, was ranked ahead of HD, superslow-motion, 3D, player cam and F1 on-board cameras by 46% of the 2,000 respondents to the survey.
It also found that the Olympics was likely to act as a catalyst for a change in viewing habits, with 58% claiming they would watch sport online during the event, compared with 49% before the Games.
Level 3, which provides a content delivery network for the BBC’s iPlayer service, said the survey showed there was a disconnect between online consumption and broadband infrastructure.
Level 3 Communications EMEA content product management James Taylor said: “Given the limited amount of broadcast spectrum that is available, online is the only obvious medium to make full breadth of content available.”
Level 3 warned that rights owners risked disappointing online viewers unless a “strong” broadband experience was delivered.
“As the IP consumption of content grows, the industry will need a fast, resilient internet to cope with the insatiable demand for watching sport and a move to IP makes this much easier,” the report stated.
“Extensive use of technologies such as content distribution networks that bring people closer to the data being served will be a necessity.
“Stream rate will be important be it will also be necessary to ensure codecs and players work well together to eliminate buffering, and we believe it would be highly preferable if HTTP were to be used as a protocol to deliver video compared to proprietary media players.”
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