Leading media executives from the worlds of TV and internet agreed that digital is totally transforming the way consumers relate to sport in a key panel at the 2010 Global Sports Forum in Barcelona. In a panel entitled Sport in the digital age, they said consumers were taking control of content and media companies needed to adapt to survive.

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, President of Eurosport, said that his business "no longer thinks of itself as a TV channel but as a multimedia platform. We now operate in a new digital eco-system where it is impossible to attract advertisers unless you have a presence across internet and mobile. But the exciting thing for us is that we can use this new technology to create a new global business."

Panellists agreed that television was likely to remain as the home of major live sports events: "But the conversation around those events is changing," said Alexandre Michelin - a former TV executive who is now executive producer of Microsoft's MSN.fr service. "Fans are out there creating their own communities around sport - and sometimes they are talking directly to the stars. The audience is taking control and that means a different landscape for us all. For me that is good because we can build something around it."

That view was shared by Mike Mathieson, CEO of consultancy Cake: "Sports stars are now attracting huge numbers of followers via platforms such as Twitter. The message for brands and rights holders is that they have to start finding ways to change their database into a fanbase. They have to connect with people through their passion."

Emmanuel Seuge, Group Director Worldwide Sports & Entertainment Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, said that his company is already changing: "The big opportunity for us in digital is that consumer engagement is now quicker and deeper. To communicate with audiences in this market, we need to think of ourselves as content providers, giving our consumers content that they can play with or personalise."

One interesting addition to the overall debate came from Jorge Claro Mimica, founder of Canal del Futbol in Chile: "We created a football channel for the Chilean League because we couldn't get sufficient revenues for our television rights from the market. After a difficult start, we are now making ten times more revenue through a combination of basic and premium channels than we were originally offered for the rights. That goes to show the difference digital can make in the sports broadcasting business."