Puons, who has been in charge of SPORTEL since 2013, admitted there was unease regarding social media but stressed the opportunities that are available if the two industries collaborate further in the future.

Major American brands such as the National Football League have already struck deals with social networking sites such as Twitter.

Last year, they announced Twitter would stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC and CBS live and for free.

The National Basketball League, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League have also signed similar agreements with Twitter.

"For me the most important in the future should be Facebook, Twitter and all the social media," Puons told insidethegames at SPORTELAmerica here.

"If you put the content on YouTube, there will be 10,000 views, but you put the same content on Facebook you are going to have one million.

"It is for this reason that this market will be influenced by social media, this is my point of view.

"To find a way to work with the social media companies is most important."

Puons conceded there was still uncertainty within the market concerning the expansion of social media within the sports media rights industry.

"For example, I am going to a boxing gala and I can put my Facebook live and all my friends can watch it for nothing," he added.

"The market will be influenced by social media but now the industry must find a good way to work closely with them together.

"They have to find a deal, that is very important."

Speaking during the 20th anniversary of SPORTELAmerica, Puons also outlined some of the ways in which the convention, attended by around 600 participants, can adapt and develop in the future.

SPORTEL this week launched a new event - the SPORTELSummit - which will gather top-level executives within companies and International Federations and also aims to attract politicians,

The first SPORTELSummit is due to be held here in May next year.

"My goal is to find the best way to develop this event because I don’t want to stay the same level," said Puons.

"I think it is important for us to go step by step.

"We are thinking about a new strategy to develop the market.

"We need to have more marketing agencies at SPORTEL because it is very important for exhibitors to have someone who can put the link between the brand and the Federation or broadcaster.

"The marketing agency can do that.

"A lot of them have a lot of money and they want to invest in these federations, events and broadcast, but they don’t know how and the marketing agency can be the link between them."