watching sport illegally debate

[Seamus Colemole]

Given the cost of being a football fan now, what with tickets, Sky, Setanta etc. maybe the industry needs to wake up and realise that we're in a bloody recession. Stop fleecing people to pay the rediculous wages of players.

As usual they are not understanding the reason why people watch matches on the Internet. Lets face it the qualty is generally rubbish compared to watching it on tv so it can only come down to cost. Subscribing to Sky/Setanta is simply too expensive for many people and thousands are being priced out. If you trust the viewing figures on some feeds it gets up to tens of thousands of people that the Premier League could entice as customers if they had a product that wasn't as bloody expensive.

Lets say for instance that fans only wanted to watch their own clubs games. Wouldn't that be a whole lot cheaper than having to pay for every single one? Would you as a fan pay a couple of quid each game to watch it legally on your own tv? Bet you would. We live in an age of customisation and of companies having to give customers exactly what they want, not mass market distribution of the same product to everyone.

Perhaps its time for the Premier League to get real.

Everyone is pretty much spot on in this thread.

When big businesses talk about lost revenue from illegal downloads/streams etc they don't mean going bust and failing to pay the people at the bottom of the scale.

They mean seeing their obscene profits less than they were previous.

For years consumers in the music/film/football etc industries have been ripped off by companies trying to make as bigger profits as they can.

Now when the consumer takes from them they cry foul. Ignoring the fact the very thing they are complaining about could and pretty much should be used to increase the profits they are so keen on.

Maybe oneday they will pull their heads out of the asses and realise the internet is a tool which they can put to good use instead of fighting.

Its definatly getting better with online retail, itunes and the likes than previous years though.

 

[Animal Farm]

What they need is somewhere u can watch every Everton game. I sometimes pay for $15 for a 10 day subscription to watch on line, only when they show Everton games though which isn't very often.

You are getting robbed.

 

[coyney]

I subscribe to both sky sports and setanta only for football(cricket if its England) but I still have a season ticket and only if im ill do I not attend but as my health is going down faster than Gerrard in the box,I would jump at a subscription to see all Everton games home and away even if it is similar to what I pay for my season tickets(2 i have one for my grandson)the guarantee that come the day of the game I would defo see the game.for last Monday I was invited in to one of the corporate boxes but still missed it through health problems .I did see the first 58 minutes on Setanta before that no signal received come up which it does every time the weather is bad.

 

[Dylan]

It's all about evolution, live screening of matches is in its relative infancy. It is awkward travelling from Northern Ireland to attend matches ie forward planning which matches to take in, only to find they have been changed for tv.
Everton tv has been, from reading posts, ropey at the best of times so I would welcome ppv if there were no last minute changes to schedules.

Sorry mate, but that is bollocks. Over here you can order EVERY single NFL game played every season, ever single NBA game. Why can't we screen every single game live? Tech is in place, broadcast medium is in place, they just have to feckin' do it.

 

[bigbadjeff]

Sorry mate, but that is bollocks. Over here you can order EVERY single NFL game played every season, ever single NBA game. Why can't we screen every single game live? Tech is in place, broadcast medium is in place, they just have to feckin' do it.

I was talking about over here with Sky, setanta and the internet though, I obviously don't know what goes over in tbe states.

 

[Neiler]

Two points, Cost and Availailty, having to pay two subscription costs form Sky and Sentanta purely to watch Everton play every four weeks is unfair, and lets face it these companys structure their supply to get the most wedge out of loyal fans.

Secondly as i live in Ireland i dont have the same oppurtunity to choose to go to the game, as otheres who live localy. From that point of view its the only format i can watch Everton every week. Both Setanta and Sky have the technology to allow fans who dont live in the U.K. to be able to watch games live for a subscrition fee, through match choice similar to football first, they provide that feature for live games in Austrailia every week. If this was the case i would happily pay the fee to watch all Everton games live over a season, but as its not watching online is my only option untill either the club or Sky or Setanta relise their is a market out there.

 

[Goat]

Sorry mate, but that is bollocks. Over here you can order EVERY single NFL game played every season, ever single NBA game. Why can't we screen every single game live? Tech is in place, broadcast medium is in place, they just have to feckin' do it.

There are laws in place in this country banning live Premiership football on a Saturday at 3pm. That would have to be changed first.

I suppose with sport in the USA its different, your country is so big and say somebody from the East coast was playing somebody from the West coast what sort of travel time would that be? 6-7 hours by plane? Im just guessing anyway.

I mean clearly when Newcastle play Portsmouth your talking 8-10 hours, but most grounds are within 4 hours from each other.

And you have so many popular sports in your country, Basketball, Football/NFL and Baseball. We only really have 1.

 

[McBain]

Im willing to pay to watch everton play, simple as that.

Downloading or viewing stuff you havent paid for is such a social minefield I am conflicted even thinking about it.

I mean seriously how do they get away with it week in week out? How is any song I want to have in my collection available for free through Limewire? How is any sport available to view without paying for it anyway?

I mean how do these guys NinjaVideo.net get away with it??

Am i going to hell? Or is Earth hell and when I die Im really born?

I want answers dammit.

 

[manxtoffee]

As I'm an offshore resident and as much I'd like to go, I find it difficult to get live games, so most of my viewing comes from Sky..
Because I'm paying top-wack already, I simply won't resort to paying Setanta(Sky) yet another fee just for the odd extra game...bring back prem' plus...
If I want to see any live action I have either go the pub(when it's on)when my other half allows me!....OR
Watch it on the web.

 

[uknightbreed]

what is the law anyway ?

is actually watching a stream illegal ?
or are the only people breaking the law tthe original streamers ?

but then again , the way p2p works means we are all streaming to someone else doesnt it ?

 

[Seamus Colemole]

what is the law anyway ?

is actually watching a stream illegal ?
or are the only people breaking the law tthe original streamers ?

but then again , the way p2p works means we are all streaming to someone else doesnt it ?

As far as i'm aware it is illegal to watch live Premiership football on United Kingdom territory other than via the channel's who have the broadcast rights.

In this case Sky and Setanta. Watching any game via any other means in this country is illegal.

 

[The Esk]

what is the law anyway ?

is actually watching a stream illegal ?
or are the only people breaking the law tthe original streamers ?

but then again , the way p2p works means we are all streaming to someone else doesnt it ?

It is illegal as the viewer of the stream is in breach of the publishers' (Sky, Setanta etc) copywright.

Incidentally myp2p.eu no longer lists English, Italian and several other nations' games pending legal proceedings.

IMO it will become increasingly difficult to watch streams in the near future.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

It is illegal as the viewer of the stream is in breach of the publishers' (Sky, Setanta etc) copywright.

Incidentally myp2p.eu no longer lists English, Italian and several other nations' games pending legal proceedings.

IMO it will become increasingly difficult to watch streams in the near future.

Hah i wondered why they weren't up there tonight.

Which seems a bit odd as the links still get listed in their forums!

Not that i'm complaining though.

 

[The Dude]

Good discussion topic

First off, the piracy element. I don't have any morals when it comes to getting free stuff online - got more cracked than legal software on my machine.

If all this adds up to about, say, £5000 worth of programs I shouldn't have, and it goes towards the total of £xx billions worth of piracy per year. Then god knows how much worth of music and videos.

But the point is that the only reason I have any of this stuff is because it is free. If the powers that be managed to stop piracy and I had to pay for all my programs, music and films, I would have hardly anything on the pc! Or instead of, say, photoshop, I'd have the shitty freeware alternative, and the same with other stuff.

So the point is that although it would be claimed that I have, say £15k "worth" of pirated stuff, the software and music companies haven't "lost" that money, lie they'd claim, because I would never pay it in the first place - in a piracy free world, I mean.

I have downloaded all sorts of albums and films just on a whim because someone said it's a bit like something else I like. I'd never pay for that music because I don't even know if I'll like it.

However, moving onto Everton "online", if it was possible to watch a game online for £5 a time, ensuring it was a good quality stream, I would pay every week, because it's Everton.

Even though these free streams are great to have and you see the team perform, a lot of the time you miss at least a proportion of the game and the quality is rarely very good.

I wouldn't mind a bit of a delay as long as we are talking "near-live" like big brother or something. Wouldn't bother if it was only on after the match itself was over or anything like that.

near live matches over the internet WILL happen, but the problem is that it will be done "officially" by sky and will be at least £10-15 per game, and they'll have loads of lame features no-one will use to justify the price. Like they do now.

 

[coolblue007]

I'll have to admit, I watch the majority of my matches online ... illegally. I'm 5,000 miles (about 8,200 km) away from Goodison. Currently, the cable provider I have offers no way to get Sky or Setanta. No way. There was a pub here that had Setanta for a bit, but with the extremely high cost, the owner couldn't justify keeping the service. Now, I'm about to finish a move into an area where there are better provider options, and I'm going to see if I can't squeeze the cost for Setanta in the budget somewhere.

That being said, I think I'll echo the sentiments of several others when I say I'd be glad to pay per match. Especially if I could be assured of a good feed and that I'd be able to actually find the matches.

It's an absolute pain scratching around all these p2p sites trying to find a decent feed. I'd definitely pay to make the experience easier.

Edit: BTW, I do get FSC for the sole purpose of football. Basically, I pay for two extra tiers of cable that I wouldn't normally get just to get this channel. Overall, that's about an extra 20 bones a month, for basically one channel. Sure, I get many, many others ... but I don't watch them. Basically, when you walk in my house and flip on a television, there's only one channel on.