The 2006 World Cup is starting up this week. And just like all major events in the world today, there will be a strong online presence at this World Cup. The Japan/S. Korea World Cup had some Internet streaming highlights and games, but this year should have more online coverage, at least for audiences in the United Kingdom. According to the BBC, BBC Sport will offer games and highlights on their website.

All of the BBC's group games will be covered live on the internet as well as all the subsequent games the BBC has in the knockout stages, including England's second round and quarter-final games, should they reach that stage. Viewers will be able to stream the same coverage as will appear on terrestrial television and listen to the same commentary.

The four-minute highlights will be available after each game finishes. This isn’t the first time the BBC has offered streaming sports feeds. They have previously offered Internet streams of the Club World Championships and the 2004 Athens Olympics. The BBC also has plans to have live streams from this year’s Wimbledon. The first game on the BBC stream will be Germany versus Costa Rica on Friday June 9th.

For those of us not in the UK, Yahoo is the official partner with FIFA for the 2006 World Cup and will be having streaming highlights after each game.

On a related note, Infront Sports, which owns the broadcast rights to this year’s World Cup, sent letters warning sites about illegal streams and downloads.
PaidContent.org reports:

Infront Sports has been sending out pre-emptive “threatening” letters to sites and ISPs which it thinks will/may be doing unauthorized streaming and downloading of the matches (and put up unauthorized images as well). BoingBoing, the most popular blog on the planet, got one letter from the law firm representing Infront…the letter states that the firm “anticipates the possibility of unauthorized streaming and downloading of FIFA World Cup matches.” The letter goes on to warn Boing Boing that Baker & McKenzie (the law firm) will be “actively monitoring your website … to identify unlawful activity and will, if necessary, take appropriate action to ensure the protection of Infront’s rights of those licenses.”