James Clarke, senior vice-president of the World Sport Group, was asked an interesting question at this week’s inaugural Global Sports Industry Congress in London.
 

Having set up the exclusive internet televising of the last Asian Youth Games, did he think that this method of publicising a sports event, a method employed more recently to show the England football team’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, was the way of the future? Was this a watershed?
 

"Yes," he said, before adding rather important qualification. "I think so."

 

Wise man.
 

Back in the 1920s, you could imagine those behind the first football commentaries on radio being asked the same question about the eight-square grid system in which listeners were invited to imagine the ball as it moved around the pitch.
 

Such is the problem of new technology – in the time it takes to write a sentence it's old technology.
 

Clarke's fellow speaker Paul Barber, executive director at Tottenham Hotspur, offered his own version of how swiftly things are changing on the broadcasting front.
 

Barber, who before joining Spurs in 2005 was the Football Association’s Director of Marketing and Communications, recalled the furore that occurred in 2000 when England’s World Cup qualifier in Finland was exclusively broadcast on the pay-for-view U-channel, which had purchased screening rights for £3.25 million.

"Even though we had no control over that decision, we were lambasted because it was the first time an England World Cup qualifier had been on a paying platform," Barber recalled. "Now virtually every England game is on a paying platform."

Barber has witnessed the cutting edge of technological change in his own household – as wielded by that most fearsome of new wave figures, a youngster. "My 15-year-old thinks using e-mail and texts is prehistoric," said Barber with a fitting degree of resignation. "They use Facebook or PSP."

"Yeah," I thought. "Right. PSP. Had to be."

Then I thought: "Is that like…ESP?"

So then I asked: "What is PSP?"

PSP – short for PlayStation Portable, a generic term for hand-held game units with their own hard drive.
 

Barber and his colleagues are now considering using such units in the proposed new Spurs stadium, the theory being that fans can use a PSP to replay as much of the foregoing action as they please until they leave the ground, at which point the data will be blocked, or stripped.
 

"I'd be happy to pay an extra couple of quid for that option," Barber said brightly. He may be right. He may be wrong.

It's just a stray thought, and not a particularly positive one, but I’m just wondering what thousands of football fans might feel like doing with their PSPs if things start to go seriously awry on the pitch.
 

I could imagine a situation where some technology might take a swift route down from stands to grass – if they continue to play on grass, that is.
 

Such things have been known to happen in football grounds.
 

But I digress.

 

 

Before I undigress, though, I wonder whether referees and linesmen could be given their own PSPs for instant action replays of controversial incidents.
 

They might be less likely, too, to lob the technology into the stands if things weren't going tickety-boo…
 

Frankly, nothing is better calculated to make you feel out of touch with the modern world than a bright and lively youngster.
 

I speak as a man whose ability to record TV programmes was effectively phased out by a new DVD player several years ago.
 

I'm sure it's all very simple, but I just cannot be arsed to pick up the instructions, skip past the Arabic and German sections and start looking for English sentences that correspond even vaguely to something I need to know.
 

Barber offered another tantalising glimpse of the future when he discussed the new Sony development of  "picture-stitching", which he says can recreate in a viewer the experience of being in a stadium. "It makes you feel like you are there," he said.
 

At this rate, they won't need to put any seats in the stadium because everybody will be able to get the same experience without leaving the pub.
 

If people are still drinking in pubs by then, that is.
 

There will also be increasing options for remote viewers of sporting action to be interactive. They will be able to track particular players throughout a match, or to view the action from particular angles.
 

Another general comment from Clarke on the subject of broadcast technology seems appropriate here: "The pace of change will be faster than we can imagine."

Again,wise man.
 

He's right, no doubt.
 

But the urge to imagine is strong – and I have a bold concept which, although it appears far-fetched right now, may one day be viewed as a commonplace.
 

It's this. How long can it be before the red button we use to choose our viewing options includes the result?
 

Nothing is better calculated to improve viewer approval than a successful outcome in the sporting event they are watching.
 

And if viewing rights can be purchased, why not outcomes?
 

The monetisation of this optional process is straightforward. RBR's, as they will be know – Red Button Results, stupid – will be achieved through the accretion of nominal payments from participating supporters.
 

Put simply, the team whose viewers contribute the most through this method win, with contributions from the other team being transferred to their next sporting fixture.
 

That will mean their team are effectively a goal up before they kick off – a situation which will require even larger numbers of opposing fans to enter the RBR process.
 

I think it's worth running up the flagpole. If we still hang flags on poles, that is.

 

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames.