Premier League plans to clamp down on illegal football streams following a High Court action against UK internet providers is reminiscent of a similar battle fought and lost by the film and music industry.
Both took on the internet pirates but despite their court battles ultimately illegal downloading of music was replaced by Itunes, Youtube and Spotify.
The pirated DVD market was largely replaced by streaming film and TV sites such as Netflix and Amazon.
The Premier League is fighting a losing battle and must now allow football supporters in the UK to watch football matches streamed legally to their TVs, tablets and phones.
It’s utterly outrageous that fans in American, Australia and Germany can watch live games that we cannot legally watch in the country of origin.
The antiquated rule of not screening football matches on a Saturday at 3 pm should be abolished. Within the next five years, I hope we see the introduction of a pay for view model for all Premier League and domestic cup games with online season tickets to watch your team all season in glorious high definition without fear of prosecution.
Charging a tenner a game for pay for view or £250 for a TV season ticket could bring in hundreds of millions for football clubs and blow the £5.3bn they received from Sky and BT for three years out of the water.
If they really want to stamp out the illegal streams, they must offer a legal good quality alternative. The!at’ the only way they will ever win ….and were they to WAKE UP…they would see that staring them in the fac
Maybe attendances at matches would drop initially but the extra income they received could make football truly affordable dropping match tickets to attend in person to a tenner too to promote full stadia with atmosphere with proper fans.
watching football on television is already far too expensive as it is. There is a site I sometimes use where I can watch pretty much any sports channel you can think of as long as I don’t mind what language it is in.
something will have to change as the cost can not keep going up. Sky put up their prices & as far as I am concerned the quality has gone down. No longer any live European coverage but I can now watch Dutch football….. really??
Nothing will get better until the powers that are stop seeing £££ UEFA has just awarded BT Sport exclusive CL & EL with no highlights elsewhere even though viewing figures are pi$$ poor. who the hell does that benefit?
I quite like watching the Dutch football on Sky essexirons.Dont be a premier league snob lol
Agree completely Sean, I remember when I lived in the States and Oz watching all the games even if in Oz it was the middle of the night, it is ridiculous, if the clubs are getting the money from the ppv tv I am sure they won’t be that bothered about a few less fans in seats. For fans like me who are waiting on a season ticket it is a good option as it would be for numerous other fans who cannot spend a decent chunk of their Saturday travelling to and from matches.
I disagree. I travel a lot and at 3pm on a Saturday I can walk into a bar in Spain or Dubai or wherever and watch all of the premiership matches. That’s because Bein or whaevver have paid a lot of money to the premiership to screen the matches and importantly people watch the match live at 3pm in Dubai will make no difference to the attendance at the grounds in the UK. However if all the bars in the UK showed the matches at 3pm this would have a direct consequence on fans going to matches. Within 5 years you would have teams playing in half empty stadiums.
Not if you made match tickets a tenner again John. You can’t beat being there live I am sure you would agree. If you price it right it would still sell out
You might be right Sean, it wouldn’t do the pubs harm either. Oh well what will be will be. I’m an old bugger that actually remembers buying the Evening News at 5pm on a Saturday to see the classified wet ink football results.
I believe one of the main reasons 3PM kick offs are banned is to help the smaller clubs that live off of the boost in attendance they get when the big clubs play away. Think about how many West Ham fans go to watch the likes of Dagenham, Hornchurch etc when we are away from home. That loss of income could cripple those clubs. In fact, even the bigger clubs are likely to take a hit in attendances if all games were on TV so it’s a stupid idea.
If they are playing they would get a share of the PPV money Watt after all their fans would be paying aswell as fans of the home club perhaps even more of their fans than home supporters.
It’s difficult enough as it is to generate an atmosphere at the LS , imagine the problems with less fans on seats . Doesn’t bare thinking about . Free live streaming would have a serious effect on West Ham and other clubs . It’s a vicious circle as lower Stadium prices would lessen revenue .. Basically, it’s all about money . It’s something we all need . The solution would need to be Harmonious and , that is not easy .
The Premier League needs something like the NBA League Pass
£80 a year or £20 a month get you every game you could possibly want
£34 a year or £7 a month gets you 8 games a month
£47 a year or £10 a month gets you all your teams games
and you can buy individual games for £5
This is streamed so will not be for everyone, but it is available on all your usual places, phones/tablets/apple tv/firestick/smart tv’s etc
Could adjust the pricing structure, and BT/Sky could still get their pick of games to show on tv but something similar to this is the way forward.
Also remember the NBA has 82 league games a year and up to another 28 in the playoffs
Didn’t the Italian league try this a few years ago and it badly backfired ??