Clampdown on TV 'Dodgy Boxes'

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121060340#Comment_121060340

A fella on a friday. Drinking a few illicit cans from the north watching PL on a dodgy box.

Dxhounds worst nightmare.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121060153#Comment_121060153

Interesting thing that about the Comcast purchase of Sky.

From Sky's inception there was plenty of hate towards Murdoch and how he was greedy and the reason that football was ruined etc etc.

But now he's gone (even though you still see the odd comment around here blaming him for Sky being this that and the other) and as you point out the outcome of the buy out by Comcast is higher prices and less variety.

And it goes to my point earlier, all these people wishing for a subscription model for just their team for €15 a month are going to be in for a surprise when they realize that subscription is not going to be cheap.

Not unlike the "de monopolising" of the rights.

Everyone thought it would be great if Sky didn't have a monopoly, but what they ended up with was having to have multiple subscriptions when you previously only needed one.

alzer100

In fairness I don't have much love for Rupert Murdoch but with News Corporation exiting and Comcast entering, Sky are now something like a UK/European arm of NBC which in fairness was Comcast's intention as they couldn't have Sky go to Disney.

Whichever way it would have gone though, I think Sky movies and their TV programming content would have been affected. If News Corporation had been successful in their bid, Sky would have been sold to Disney and that would have upset Comcast so then Sky would have probably had to negotiate a much less appealing deal with them to show programming from NBC/Universal. At present to my knowledge I don't think Sky movies show any content from 20th Century Fox/Disney (with Sky Store being an exception and open to correction on this) so I think that it was inevitable that the subscriber would lose out from a financial and program variety perspective.

Sports has become another kettle of fish. There is no longer a one stop shop for Premier League content and I'm sure it has been highlighted here before in relation to the costs on the customer to subscribe to multiple content suppliers and this is where the illegal IPTV suppliers have their appeal. The content is out there streaming 24 hours a day, it's knowing how to access it and that is what makes it very attractive to people with a basic level of technical knowledge.

Atlantic Dawn

Sky are one to talk about people ripping them off, they were back in 2018 purchasing La Liga games for £22 million for the entire season, this was less than they were spending on a single weekends Premier League games.

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121062776#Comment_121062776

The EU is pretty awful on those things, cookie requests have ruined websites, privacy request removals end up being used by criminals and competition means at least 2 providers offering the same product (manu vs. liverpool being available on 2 providers) not offering separate products (manu v liverpool on provider 1 and liverpool v man city on provider 2).

Haddonfield

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121052006#Comment_121052006

Bullshit!

tayto lover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121053696#Comment_121053696

I stopped paying Sky a small fortune. I only had it for the golf and football anyway but got fed up of watching matches I had little interest in and watching 4 golf shots followed by 12 adverts.

gijoees

If Sky wasn't so dear would there be a need for these dodgy boxes? All in, it could cost you up on €120 a month. Not to mention the cost of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney etc on top of this. If using all the different on demand services was not so expensive it would not be a hard decision to stick with them..??

Gusser09

The age old argument will be that if you don't want to pay for the content through the proper channels then go without. However that argument is only moral based. Sky can't stop it at all so they need to respond with a product that will be attractive to people who use alternative platforms.

I've given my thoughts on what a football package should cost. I think around 50 a month all in with access to the ultra hd etc is more than enough. I'd be willing to pay that over the course of 8 months for the PL and Champions League.

As I've said. The profits and salaries involved in football are the issue here. Not lads sitting in their houses with IPTV streams.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132807#Comment_121132807

I've given my thoughts on what a football package should cost. I think around 50 a month all in with access to the ultra hd etc is more than enough. I'd be willing to pay that over the course of 8 months for the PL and Champions League.

You're literally picking a number out of your head without any idea of the costs, margins etc to supply the service, and just to be clear neither do I.

But why do people always assume that a English Premier League package will be cheap, or at least reasonably priced, in the UK and Ireland, which is it's biggest market?

The only way it gets cheap is if the arse falls out of it, broadcasters stop paying back g money for rights, clubs get less money thus become poorer, big players leave, or don't come in the first place, crowds and sponsorship drop off etc etc.

Then it'll be cheap because it will be an inferior product.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121133773#Comment_121133773

Ok. Fair points.

However until it reaches a point in cost that I consider to be affordable I will 100 percent watch it by other means. That's the issue facing Sky. It's up to them to make a profit so the issue of costs is there problem. Not mine.

You've literally agreed with everything I have said by the way. Clubs, Players, Pundits and other stakeholders should be feeling the pain if Sky want to entice IPTV users back.

There is no moral argument against what I am doing that holds water. It's literally one of only a few victimless crimes.

Just to add using illegal stream to watch football isn't at all comparable to shoplifting or stealing someones purse. That argument makes me laugh.

Sultan of Bling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132807#Comment_121132807

You should try now tv which is owned by sky.

There is thread on boards which give great discount codes.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121134114#Comment_121134114

I've seen them. Had it before. Good product but they were looking for 72 quid a month last time I checked. The faffing around with codes is a pain at times.

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121134114#Comment_121134114

I'm paying circa €40, for sports, entertainment and boost (and probably could've done better with better timing)

rob316

Sky are flogging a dead horse, they should be making the content more affordable, accessible and increasing market share. They can't put a dent in piracy, take a service down, another will pop up. The premier league is there golden goose, its only a matter of time as broadband speeds and accessibility increases, the PL will go it on there own, produce and distribute the content themselves. In this day and age all content needs to be accessible on demand, that's every game not 3/4 games a weekend.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121134914#Comment_121134914

With Prime having had games for a few years now in surprised it hasnt happened sooner. If sky were to lose anymore of the EPL im guessing Mr Carragher and Mr Neville would do a u turn on the European Super League.

Sky have no morals. I have even less when it comes to stealing there product.

bodhrandude

I know a few folk who still use First Row Sports on their laptop, I've often wondered how Sky has not taken this down yet as it does offer most of the PL games free if you can get through the pop ups.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121134914#Comment_121134914

But what is affordable?

Your definition of affordable may be different from mine.

And like the other poster you have absolutely no idea what costs are involved in broadcasting games.

As for the premier league ditching the tv companies and going it alone that's not happening until at least the 2030, they won't be in a position to go it alone before the next round of rights sales which will be for the 2024 to2029 seasons.

And if it does happen in 2030 don't expect the service to be affordable, it will be a massive infrastructure outlay for the premier league to setup it's own broadcast network, and the customer will pay for that.

This is a very good article that goes through every aspect of EPL broadcast rights

https://theathletic.com/4240951/2023/08/25/premier-league-tv-rights-how-work-cost/

Nigzcurran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121135992#Comment_121135992

Those pop ups were torture back in the day, you'd spend forever trying to close each one in sequence without ending up on some porn site!

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121136747#Comment_121136747

Always felt like my PC was getting more and more infected with every click. Surprised it's still going.

Macy0161

the PL will go it on there own, produce and distribute the content themselves. 

The PL already produce a "world feed" - it's the Premier Sports commentary on the Saturday 3pm match for example.

El Gato De Negocios

I have an IPTV sub and have had one for several years. Costs me less than €100 for the year and it includes every conceivable channel. Literally the only thing I watch on it is Man United games, nothing else. We have netflix, disney and paramount in the house that is all being paid for. If a legit provider were able to offer me access to all United games for €120 per season Id happily pay it but the reality is between the league, the league cup, the FA cup and the champions league, Id need 3 or 4 different monthly subscriptions to watch the games and even at that, I wouldnt be able to watch all the league games. Monthly it would cost me the same as what the annual IPTV sub costs. Fluck that.

Butson

The current football economic model = high tv subscription prices.

If you want to pay players €100k a week, the money needs to come from Sky etc paying a fortune for the rights. For them to make a profit on this investment, pay for the production of the games and all the people it takes to make it happen, they need to charge customers a high fee.

Lower tv rights = lower subscription costs for customers.

I would be pretty sure the rights value is going to drop next year when they come up for bidding. Technology means it's just too easy and handy for people to get the streams illegally, and it will get to a stage where the people who are paying Sky etc legally, are just being eejits.

Nigzcurran

I remember back about 20 years ago you could get the dodgy cablelink boxes where you had to enter a code in every so often to keep them going and eventually they put a stop to them, after that everyone was card sharing and sky were losing a fortune so they tried their best to clampdown on that but by then iptv was starting out so everyone just shifted onto that. By the time they ever get around to stopping the iptv there will be a new way of doing it. I pay full price for prime video and Disney because its reasonable and affordable, I would never be able to pay full price for sky and tnt

SteM

I still don't understand why morally people think it's okay, 'It's available but I couldn't afford it so I'll steal it'. It's not an essential part of life like food, maybe we should change 'The Fields Of Athenry' to 'The Joys of Stealing Sky'.

I think the majority of the same people would not steal a car if they thought they could get away with it, but because IPTV isn't tangible it's okay to steal it.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121137878#Comment_121137878

Lower tv rights = lower subscription costs for customers.

No necessarily.

Lower TV rights equals less jobs in football, and I don't mean player or coaches or executives, I mean grounds keepers, cleaners, office staff, caterers.

If there is less TV rights money then the clubs get less revenue, and they are not going to start cutting the wages of players straight away, but they will start cutting back on all the ancillary staff that are needed to run the club and on a match day.

So the gobshite sitting at home in Offaly who likes to refer to Liverpool FC as "we" and hates Manchester even though he has never actually been there, with his smug "I get all the football and more for less than €100 a year" attitude, is actually putting a real person from Liverpool out of a job.

Yep, it's a victimless crime alright.

K-9

The Pirates vs. the Premier League is a podcast series well worth a listen to on this topic, about 5/6 episodes, 15/20 minutes long so not that long a listen.

He's a sports financial journalist that tuned into Sky on a cold, Thursday night in England and his beloved Villa match isn't on anywhere, so loads up a stream on the laptop as he often has to do, despite having a Sky subscription and going to a good few games.

He couldn't get a decent stream anywhere, they all seemed to be taken down, usually gets them on twitter, so the thought for the podcast came up.

Similar points came up as on this thread, why no season ticket, 3pm games, Wednesday night games, the cost of living etc.

Interestingly, one of the piraters they tracked down, probably Eastern European, doesn't actually use his own iptv service! He can get it from the official tv provider in his country for about the same as the £15 or so a month he charges. Nobody uses the piraters in his own country.

https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/the-pirates-vs-the-premier-league/4577351

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121139136#Comment_121139136

Was it Portsmouth it happened to that time a few years back? If the players, for one week only, took a pay cut it would have saved jobs in the canteen etc and they refused.

NIMAN

Iirc, Sky Italy provided the option for fans of a team to buy all their away games as a package.

And that was about 10 yrs ago.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121138758#Comment_121138758

Its morally fine because what sky offer is a rip off and I think it's wrong to charge stupid prices for stuff. If they can't offer ok value then they can f**k off. Also i think stealing is too harsh of a word as your not physically taking anything.