Brussels, 12/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - According to Commissioner Viviane Reding, the relationship between the audiovisuals sector and sport needs to be redefined, in line with current technological progress. On Monday, Ms Reding was taking part in the 15th Sportel event, a symposium held yearly in Monaco and which is an important meeting place for the worlds of sport and television. The guest of honour at the first symposium of 2004 on the subject "Sport and television: who holds the cards?", the Commissioner stressed the importance of the world of sport and television to create a dialogue with new bases. Sport, especially football, plays a major part in the proposed content of pay-per-view television, given the interest among television viewers. The development of new media also opens up new opportunities for access to sporting events, for example transmitting images via mobile telephones. Sport is an excellent way of boosting developments in these new technologies. Inversely, television is the main source of funding for sports clubs, said Ms Reding. "In my view, sport cannot be reduced to a simple instrument to gain audience; nor can sports federations think of television merely as a source of funding", said the Commissioner, who reiterated the initiatives launched by the European Commission to move people's mindsets on, under the impetus of Commissioner Monti (the European executive brought in more competition into exclusive contracts between television and sports clubs, giving terrestrial TV the opportunity to broadcast certain football matches for the greater benefit of television spectators: Ed). "I feel that there should be a real discussion within European sport about how to improve the links between sporting and economic interests", said Commissioner Reding.