Australia's Seven Network has become the first to broker a deal with the International Olympic Committee, allowing for the first time internet sites in Australia to show short video clips of Olympic events in Beijing.

Under the terms of the new deal, sites that are non-rights holders will be allowed to show three minutes of Olympic events' footage a day. The deal is not without strict conditions: the video stream must be broken up into three segments, each of no more 60 seconds long, the content must be removed with 24 hours, and sites must 'geoblock' content from users outside Australia.

The new rules for internet sites are similar to the rules for television stations with broadcast rights to the Olympics. 

"It is a fairly significant development," said Kevan Gosper, Australia's senior International Olympic Committee member. "The IOC has, for a long time, been at the forefront of supporting both the rights of the official rights holders and fair access to news about the Olympics for media around the world."

The question now will be if this deal with extend to mobile devices with internet capabilities. Moreover, the terms of the deal only mention 'Olympic material,' leaving news organizations with questions over the IOC stance towards technical and newsroom convergence around audio-visual newsgathering.

Sources: News Media Coalition's Andrew Moger, The Australian through News Media Coalition