Joseph Parker's backers say the heat is on YouTube to produce a broadcast befitting the world heavyweight championship.

Duco Events face a busy time checking that the radical move in Britain to go online with Parker's fight against Hughie Fury will transfer smoothly to New Zealand television.

Fury's promoters at Hennessy Sports have trumpeted their partnership with YouTube as ground-breaking for the sport, with viewers to pay £10 (NZ$18) to watch it in the UK and Ireland.

PHOTOSPORT Duco Events boss David Higgins, centre, wants a closer look at the radical mv oe to put the WBO world heavyweight title fight online.

Duco boss David Higgins felt the development was "new and interesting" but wanted more time to "research the facts" before offering a firm opinion.

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MARK ROBINSON British heavyweight contender Hughie Fury has hailed the internet as the future of broadcasting.

Higgins is eager to ensure the broadcast runs smoothly on both sides of the world with the fight to be screened in New Zealand on Sky TV's pay-per-view Arena channel on September 24.

"They are contractually required to provide us a 2-3 hour broadcast-quality fight card in 16x9 definition with geo-blocking giving exclusive rights to New Zealand, Australia and Samoa. I'm sure they are aware of that," Higgins said.

"The contract requires a signal in high quality that Sky pick up. Where it comes from is immaterial, so long as the signal is delivered."

Online sports broadcasting is not new though some of it has appeared inferior to TV production and Higgins felt this was an area that would be judged with a fight of this significance.

"YouTube's reputation is on the line. This is the heavyweight world championship ... Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis ... if YouTube stuff it up, it's going to reflect on them.

"It's just a medium ... your phone, your computer. What no one has mastered is the ability to do it in a professional, well-presented manner that is not a stuff up.

"Then again, YouTube is a giant corporation, you'd like to think they'll do it right."

Higgins said he would give the unexpected initiative "the benefit of the doubt at this stage".

On the topic of piracy that has plagued previous Parker fights and boxing in general – there were a reported 3 million illegal views of the recent Mayweather-McGregor fight – Higgins was similarly open-minded.

The new format could be more vulnerable to illegal streamers "but another way of looking at is that YouTube is a substantial, global, billion dollar company that is quite advanced at managing things like piracy".

The development gained considerable headlines in Britain which will help a fight that has been lacking genuine promotion.

The Times noted that this continued a growing trend. YouTube would be broadcasting this season's Champions League Finals in ultra-high-definition free of charge, courtesy of BT Sport. The social media channel had also struck a two-year-deal to live stream IPL games back in 2010 to countries outside of the USA.

In other online areas, Facebook had a number of high-profile deals including broadcast rights to 15 American college football games, 46 Mexican football league games, 22 MLS games, World Surf League coverage, 20 Major League Baseball fixtures and (for American viewers only) Champions League matches this season.

Twitter won the rights to broadcast 10 Thursday night NFL games last season as well as France's matches from this year's Six Nations.

There has been speculation that the All Blacks could switch to an internet TV service on Amazon in the future.

The decision to use YouTube was greeted with mixed views by fight fans in the affected UK market.

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Watch this event anywhere online or on your smart TV, game console, PC, Mac, mobile, tablet and more for only £9.99 pic.twitter.com/G62myYT8SW — IG: @HennessySports (@HennessySports) September 5, 2017 Endless buffering of a Hughie Fury fight...for a tenner? This is one of the stranger business decisions. — Chris Boyd (@Christhismusic) September 5, 2017

With all this mess I do feel for @joeboxerparker he would have made more, fought in front of more people and got larger TV exposure at home! — TheSweetScientist (@boxingbloggeruk) September 5, 2017

Hughie Fury vs Joseph Parker on PPV on YouTube 😂🤦🏻‍♂️ heard it all now — James Heron (@jamesheron92) September 5, 2017

I think this is a great move. Everyone has the ability to watch. New trend started I hope 👍 — Rob (@Robbie_G90) September 5, 2017