The All England Lawn Tennis Club has banned spectators attending this year’s Wimbledon tennis championships from using mobile devices to stream live video coverage of the London tournament.
Fans will be allowed to bring phones and tablets inside the All England Club, but will be banned from streaming live videos shot on devices via streaming applications such as Periscope and Meerkat.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Alex Willis, head of digital and content at the All England Club, said: “It’s in the conditions of entry that people aren’t allowed to use their phone during matches, and that would also apply to live streaming.”
Willis said that event organisers plan to use live video streaming in a “very targeted way, to capture unique moments and give a unique insight into Wimbledon.” However, she denied that organisers would use the technology as a “competitor” of the event’s broadcast rights holders.
The move comes after the United States Golf Association took a similar approach to live video streaming at this month’s US Open golf major. The decision was taken due to concerns raised by media rights holders at major sporting events over spectators’ use of Periscope and rival live streaming app Meerkat infringing upon their broadcast contracts.