Clampdown on streaming and foreign feeds

Mgoraf

The Premier League is planning an aggressive campaign to protect its intellectual property rights in an attempt to clamp down on rogue websites that show football matches for nothing and pub landlords who broadcast foreign feeds, amid fears that they could damage its income from broadcasting rights.

Having recently recorded a surge in the number of people watching via websites that transmit live pictures from overseas broadcasters or allow users to share vision using "peer-to-peer" video sites, the league is determined to push the issue up the political agenda.

Premier League lawyers want the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, and the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, to crack down on copyright infringement by making internet service providers responsible for the actions of their subscribers, and appoint an "IP tsar" to coordinate action across government.

Having been vigilant for years against wholesale piracy the league's lawyers have recently taken a high-profile lobbying role in the UK, Europe and internationally. The league has been liaising with sporting authorities around the world, media owners and other affected parties to highlight the need for urgent action and more consistent enforcement.

The chief executive, Richard Scudamore, last week told the all-party IP group of MPs that the government needed to take a harder line and do more to implement the recommendations in a report on copyright by Andrew Gowers. Stephen Carter, the communications minister, is due to unveil a draft report on the future of Digital Britain next week.

"The ISPs have got to take more responsibility," said a Premier League lawyer. "We have sent over 700 cease-and-desist letters and had an 87% success rate this season. [But] one of our problems is that often the sites reregister a domain name, using false names and addresses, and sign up with an ISP in a less protected country – 60% of peer-to-peer activity has been coming out of China. ISPs have to take on a stronger role and have a better enforcement policy."

The league said that when officials from countries traditionally seen as "safe harbours", such as China, were confronted about piracy, they typically asked why more was not being done by the UK government or within Europe.

Already millions of computer users across the world watch matches live without paying a subscription fee. The Premier League fears that the mainstream use of broadband and the increased popularity of watching video online make widespread piracy a very real prospect, which could seriously reduce the amount broadcasters are prepared to pay.

Sporting authorities are terrified of following the path of the music industry, which saw its business model collapse after it failed to combat digital piracy. The league made £625m from its overseas rights deals last time around and a total of £2.7bn overall, and is banking on another increase after 2010 to compensate for a potential dip in domestic income.

The Premier League recently led a coalition of 27 sporting bodies to prepare a background report for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development at the behest of the G8. The report said unauthorised live streams of some sporting events were already being watched by more than one million people.

Websites that offer access to live unauthorised coverage from PCs, usually sourced from overseas broadcasters in the Far East or around the world, have been popular with a small minority of web users unwilling to pay for a TV subscription for some time.

Poor quality pictures and audio, combined with the determination required to track them down, previously made them a niche pursuit. But with feeds now of a higher quality and easier to access there are fears that more and more cash-strapped fans will turn to them.

And with many of the illicit feeds originating from China and elsewhere around the world, the Premier League is reliant on specialist internet firms to track them down and persuade internet service providers to punish individuals.

Late last year, the Premier League threatened action against the US website, Justin.tv, which allows its users to share and stream footage from all over the world. It has also launched a high-profile class action against YouTube, which is expected to be heard in the US later this year. The original class action, launched in 2007, was recently superseded by a second complaint at the end of last year.

Scudamore has been bullish about the prospect of the value of its media deals holding up despite the global economic slump that has affected media companies and their advertisers, because live Premier League crucial is considered so crucial to their business models.

Major US sporting bodies are also taking the prospect of revenue loss from illicit online viewing seriously. Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association have all taken steps to stem the rising tide of online piracy. MLB employees three people full-time to monitor illegal broadcasts and last year recorded 5,000 separate incidents

Don't think they'll be able to cut it out fully...

monkey9

Ah Scudamore can go f*ck himself. For a bloke who wants a 39th league game played on the other side of the world, he should just keep it shut!

Bounty Hunter

just like the music industry found out and the movie industry is finding out if people dont want to pay for something and have access to the internet they will find away to get it online for free, they wont stop streaming, hell its only getting going.

Headshot

when the tv contract is up (btw when is that up)

why doesn't the pl create their own ppv channel

i wouldnt have to have setanta or sky sports then

Bounty Hunter

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

when the tv contract is up (btw when is that up)

why doesn't the pl create their own ppv channel

i wouldnt have to have setanta or sky sports then

they have talked about it if the next tv deal on offer isnt good enough

Mgoraf

Didn't they already have one of them up til last season?

dreamers75

myp2p have a legal notice on their site saying they not linking anymore.


Assume they will go after them and other "highlighters" of links, the actual links will still be there just harder to find.

dreamers75

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

when the tv contract is up (btw when is that up)

why doesn't the pl create their own ppv channel

i wouldnt have to have setanta or sky sports then

You think the PL channel would be cheaper or somehow better?

Headshot

dreamers75 wrote: »

You think the PL channel would be cheaper or somehow better?

bound to be

have interactive service to choose what match you want

bound to be cheaper id say too

the money they'll get for advertising would be unreal

citytillidie

Just have Setanta or Sky have online rights to stream the match say pay £2 a match would be a nice money earner.

redout

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

when the tv contract is up (btw when is that up)

why doesn't the pl create their own ppv channel

i wouldnt have to have setanta or sky sports then

They have threatened to if the upcoming tv deal does not improve on the current one.

Mossy Monk

Why all games are not available is beyond me. One thing that will make piracy continue is decisions like Sky's game choice tonight.

kippy

They did this clampdown about this time last year and just before the World Cup as well.

Hank Scorpio

have a looksie at this thread

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055474230

_blank_

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Sky's game choice

what "choice"

the current deal means they have to show a certain amount of every team.

redout

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Why all games are not available is beyond me. One thing that will make piracy continue is decisions like Sky's game choice tonight.

Here in Spain every league match is available either on tv or ppv. yes i did say EVERY league game.

_blank_

redout wrote: »

Here in Spain every league match is available either on tv or ppv. yes i did say EVERY league game.

sorry, are you talking about La Liga or the epl here?

redout

Des wrote: »

sorry, are you talking about La Liga or the epl here?

La liga but I am saying that if other big leagues can do it then so can the EPL. We get a **** deal compared to other countries. Imagine being a Barca fan and being able to watch all 38 games live. It would be heaven.

Xavi6

Every Premiership game is available on viewer's choice over here thanks to Foxtel.

redout

Xavi is there any implications for boards being used to provide links to illegal streams ?

_blank_

redout wrote: »

Imagine being a Barca fan and being able to watch all 38 games live. It would be heaven.

er...I think the complete opposite actually.

having every game available on TV would affect attendances of the lower leagues.

It'e the very reason there is no live 3 o'clock game on British tv on a Saturday.

I very much think that this should continue.

_blank_

redout wrote: »

Xavi is there any implications for boards being used to provide links to illegal streams ?

here's a Feedback about this very thing.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055469348

they aren't illegal.

spockety

Des wrote: »

er...I think the complete opposite actually.

having every game available on TV would affect attendances of the lower leagues.

It'e the very reason there is no live 3 o'clock game on British tv on a Saturday.

I very much think that this should continue.

We're not in Britain.

_blank_

spockety wrote: »

We're not in Britain.

but we rely on British tv for our epl coverage.

It certainly wouldn't be worth it for Sky/Setanta to invest the kind of money to make every game available in Ireland.

spockety

Des wrote: »

but we rely on British tv for our epl coverage.

It certainly wouldn't be worth it for Sky/Setanta to invest the kind of money to make every game available in Ireland.

No, but I can guarantee you that it would be worth it for an Irish internet based webcaster to put in place the infrastructure to broadcast every single PL match on a PPV view basis online, at say a fiver a match.

We are burdened in Ireland by being stuck with Sky and Setanta as they effectively pool the UK and Irish rights. Why should we not in this country be able, like in other EU countries, be able to have 'match choice' functionality (whether online or traditional broadcast)?

Scudamore and the PL will fight their corner, obviously it's their product and they are entitled to offer it up in whatever way they want. But unless they give the CONSUMER what the consumer wants, they will always be fighting a losing battle. This is what the music industry found out, this is what the movie industry found out. The internet changes the game, they must embrace it, they could make a lot of money out of it if they gave the consumer a high quality product at a fair price.

redout

Des wrote: »

er...I think the complete opposite actually.

having every game available on TV would affect attendances of the lower leagues.

It'e the very reason there is no live 3 o'clock game on British tv on a Saturday.

I very much think that this should continue.

Maybe you are right. Attendances here are quite low. Barca and Real dont even sell-out their games except for El Clasico, Madrid derby and the Catalan derby with Espanyol. I was at Real Madrid v Deportivo on sunday and there was about 8,000 empty seats in the Bernabeu.

_blank_

spockety wrote: »

No, but I can guarantee you that it would be worth it for an Irish internet based webcaster to put in place the infrastructure to broadcast every single PL match on a PPV view basis online, at say a fiver a match.

No it wouldn't.

People are only really interested in watching the "glamour" games/teams.

What would be worth investigating would be the possibility of getting rights to broadcast Manchester, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea games.

But the other clubs would never go for that. And it has lead to problems in La Liga in the past.

Remember a few seasons ago when there was a Tv blackout in La Liga, it was because the Tv stations didn't want to pay any money to the "smaller" clubs.

_blank_

redout wrote: »

Maybe you are right. Attendances here are quite low. Barca and Real dont even sell-out their games except for El Clasico, Madrid derby and the Catalan derby with Espanyol. I was at Real Madrid v Deportivo on sunday and there was about 8,000 empty seats in the Bernabeu.

I am right.

I mean you'd never see 8k empty seats in Old Trafford for any league match.

Why?

Because all of the games aren't televised.

citytillidie

spockety wrote: »

No, but I can guarantee you that it would be worth it for an Irish internet based webcaster to put in place the infrastructure to broadcast every single PL match on a PPV view basis online, at say a fiver a match.

We are burdened in Ireland by being stuck with Sky and Setanta as they effectively pool the UK and Irish rights. Why should we not in this country be able, like in other EU countries, be able to have 'match choice' functionality (whether online or traditional broadcast)?

Scudamore and the PL will fight their corner, obviously it's their product and they are entitled to offer it up in whatever way they want. But unless they give the CONSUMER what the consumer wants, they will always be fighting a losing battle. This is what the music industry found out, this is what the movie industry found out. The internet changes the game, they must embrace it, they could make a lot of money out of it if they gave the consumer a high quality product at a fair price.

But Republic of Ireland get that extra 3pm game on a Saturday that we dont get up here in Northern Ireland

_blank_

citytillidie wrote: »

But Republic of Ireland get that extra 3pm game on a Saturday that we dont get up here in Northern Ireland

and it ALWAYS involves one of the "big 4".

Jazzy

i say football for all, bagels for some

_blank_

Jazzy wrote: »

i say football for all, bagels for some

you can say that because you don't particularly care about the "smaller" teams.

In fact, i'm sure you couldn't give a shiney shíte if a team like Doncaster Rovers goes under.

But.

This is what will happen if attendances fall in the lower leagues. These teams rely, absolutely rely, on gate receipts for their very survival.

There is a world outside the "Big 4" and it's not a very nice world either.

What would be acceptable would be "ClubTV" stations being allowed to carry live coverage of games, but not widely available TV coverage of every top flight game at the touch of a button.

What happens then though, is that money filters out of the game, and the rich clubs cream off the top tv money on offer.

How many people would subscribe to "HullCityTV"?

How about each club station gets the home games, and has them as PPV for non-subscribers.

this way, the smaller club gets revenue from the fans of the bigger clubs when they want to watch their team.

Mossy Monk

redout wrote: »

Here in Spain every league match is available either on tv or ppv. yes i did say EVERY league game.

Let me go to the tv, oh wait not all games are available to me on my tv.

LuckyLloyd

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Why all games are not available is beyond me. One thing that will make piracy continue is decisions like Sky's game choice tonight.

So true.

Benedict XVI

spockety wrote: »

No, but I can guarantee you that it would be worth it for an Irish internet based webcaster to put in place the infrastructure to broadcast every single PL match on a PPV view basis online, at say a fiver a match.

There's really only a market for 3 EPL teams here in Ireland, Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.

So no one is going to commit to broadcasting every game that does not include one of them.

If I recall this is want helped ITV digital it the wall, asking people to pay for s**te they had no interest in seeing.

Highsider

Dream on

Mossy Monk

Benedict XVI wrote: »

There's really only a market for 3 EPL teams here in Ireland, Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.

The same can be said for any country that is not in the UK but other countries get all games.

spockety

Des wrote: »

you can say that because you don't particularly care about the "smaller" teams.
In fact, i'm sure you couldn't give a shiney shíte if a team like Doncaster Rovers goes under.
But.
This is what will happen if attendances fall in the lower leagues. These teams rely, absolutely rely, on gate receipts for their very survival.
There is a world outside the "Big 4" and it's not a very nice world either.
What would be acceptable would be "ClubTV" stations being allowed to carry live coverage of games, but not widely available TV coverage of every top flight game at the touch of a button.
What happens then though, is that money filters out of the game, and the rich clubs cream off the top tv money on offer.
How many people would subscribe to "HullCityTV"?
How about each club station gets the home games, and has them as PPV for non-subscribers.
this way, the smaller club gets revenue from the fans of the bigger clubs when they want to watch their team.

I presume you are still talking about UK based fans.

I'm not, I'm talking about people based in the Republic of Ireland, who want to have their choice of match to watch, every single weekend. Just like people elsewhere in Europe do (I've seen it in Austria, 6-8 match premier league choice on a saturday), and people in the Middle East do.

I fail to see how an Irish broadcaster/webcaster getting the rights to show every league match that Sky/Setanta aren't showing on the TV is in any way going to affect the gate receipts of Doncaster Rovers.

As I said earlier, the Premier League is going to have to embrace the internet, and monetize it. If they don't, people all over the world, as well as in the UK, will continue to find ways to watch matches online that they cannot see on their TV sets.

Also, if the revenue is split evenly across the entire league, then it doesn't matter which matches people choose to watch, the Premier League gets the cheque from the broadcaster/webcaster , not the teams being watched.

Benedict XVI

spockety wrote: »

I presume you are still talking about UK based fans.

I'm not, I'm talking about people based in the Republic of Ireland, who want to have their choice of match to watch, every single weekend. Just like people elsewhere in Europe do (I've seen it in Austria, 6-8 match premier league choice on a saturday), and people in the Middle East do.

I fail to see how an Irish broadcaster/webcaster getting the rights to show every league match that Sky/Setanta aren't showing on the TV is in any way going to affect the gate receipts of Doncaster Rovers.

As I said earlier, the Premier League is going to have to embrace the internet, and monetize it. If they don't, people all over the world, as well as in the UK, will continue to find ways to watch matches online that they cannot see on their TV sets.

Also, if the revenue is split evenly across the entire league, then it doesn't matter which matches people choose to watch, the Premier League gets the cheque from the broadcaster/webcaster , not the teams being watched.

But the market is not there for it.

Lets look at next weeks fixtures and see how many would be of interest to enough fans to make it a viable commercial option (based on my own opinions)

Arsenal v West Ham - Major interest
Aston Villa v Wigan - minimal interest
Bolton v Tottenham - minimal interest
Fulham v Portsmouth - no interest
Hull v West Brom - even less interest
Man Utd v Everton - major interest
Middlesbrough v Blackburn - no to minimal interest
Stoke v Man City - no to minimal interest
Liverpool v Chelsea - Major interest
Newcastle v Sunderland - average interset

That makes 3 major, 1 average and 6 minimal or worse.

Ronan|Raven

Every game is available if people are willing to part ways with their sky setup. I have an official sub to another provider and nearly every game if I so choose to watch them. There is a lot of choice out there with a 1metre + dish.

Boggles

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Every game is available if people are willing to part ways with their sky setup. I have an official sub to another provider and nearly every game if I so choose to watch them. There is a lot of choice out there with a 1metre + dish.

So true, there are alot of other providers out there that can be gained legally or illegally other than Sky UK.

It is all about encryption, which is a very expenisve thing to maintain and like all encryption it can be broken, what generally happens when a company shuts down one method instead of embracing it, another better method pops up almost immediately.

They quite simply can't stamp it out, they can make it harder for the average streamer but that is all.

spockety

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Every game is available if people are willing to part ways with their sky setup. I have an official sub to another provider and nearly every game if I so choose to watch them. There is a lot of choice out there with a 1metre + dish.

Yeah, that's the whole point. Right now it the choice that is being taken by illegal users around the world is not being monetized by the premier league. If they took their fingers out of their ears for five seconds they would realize there is an opportunity to make a load of wedge by providing people with high quality match choices online.

BTW, I'm not talking about in the UK, obviously they have a 3pm saturday law which prevents this. I guess I'm specifically talking about Ireland, since we get a duff deal by Sky and Setanta buying the Irish market encumbered by UK rules.

Pal

Every PL game is available live on satellite TV.

Sky/Setanta are not the only broadcasters. There is a lot of choice out there.

everdead.ie

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

bound to be

have interactive service to choose what match you want

bound to be cheaper id say too

the money they'll get for advertising would be unreal

They still won't show every match so it doesn't impact too much on gate revenues be nice for us tho if they set up an Irish one could watch all the games then.

pwd

myp2p.eu gives lists of live streams for sporting events. (I don't see any warez or other illegal content on the site dispite the url suggesting there could be)
I noticed a few weeks ago they were no longer listing premier league matches. Now on the front page of the site there is the following notice:

Because of pending legal proceedings, Myp2p has removed all links in the following competions:
Elitserien - SM-Liga - NHL - Swedish Allsvenskan - Italian Serie A - English Premier
League - Dutch Eredivisie.
Once a judgment has been given, we will notify you of the outcome.