Lots to pick up on today but a Bloomberg article on “Soccer Pirates” grabbed my attention. The US business news broadcaster focussed on a recent fundamental technical shift which has seen high quality and reliable feeds of Sky and BT broadcast football games illegal appearing on TV sets across the globe.
The days of illegal content consumers scavenging around their laptop for a feed in the minutes leading up to kick off are on the way out. Now you can subscribe to a feed of your chosen content in Eastern Europe or China and it will be streamed to a device attached to your TV, where it will appear pretty much as it does direct from Sky.
This is important for several reasons. Subscription football is expensive. Thousands of Scottish football fans pay a significant portion of their monthly disposable income to Sky and BT to follow their team on television. They also get English and Spanish football as part of these subscriptions, but there is a dysfunctional market for football content.
While Sky earn 8% of their UK subscription income from Scotland, they send only 1% of their football outlays north of the border. English Premier League football is the key to entry into the UK subscription TV market, own this content, and you have market control. Cost per eyeball paid for Scottish football is a tiny fraction what is paid for English football (or English rugby league, for that matter), which has fostered a feeling among Scottish subscribers that they are being exploited by an oligopolist.
For some time now the comments section of CQN has seen discussions on how to organise a boycott of Sky, with many making the unilateral declaration “Just cancelled Sky Sports”, but there is a fundamental truth: if we have the money, we are going to watch Celtic.
Scrambling around for an illegal feed minutes before kick-off, fighting pop-ups or coping with lags is not how I want to watch my football, however, as the Bloomberg article makes plain, these issues are irrelevant if, like 2.4 million others, you subscribe to an Eastern European or Chinese feed. To force an oligopolist to change, you either need regulators to step in (they have abandoned us to a fragment of the UK market), or you need to find a way to take your business elsewhere.
One of the main advantages of being paid a pittance is you can take bold steps; Scottish football has nothing to lose by burning bridges with those who collect revenues here and pour the money into the coffers of clubs elsewhere.
The more fundamental question, even than losing Scottish subscribers, to Sky and BT, is the risk this technology poses to the value of their English Premier League broadcast rights. Viewers in England (and across the globe) also pay a substantial levy to watch English football. If the pick-up rate of Eastern European subscriber numbers continues, and assurances given to Bloomberg that prosecutions for use are unlikely, Sky and BT will see collapsing revenues – and maybe then we’ll see the English football bubble burst. Indeed, if Scottish viewers prove the concept and move en-mass, English viewers will not be far behind.
This is an important subject, we’ll talk more about it. I’m not going to advocate breaking even an unenforceable law, although others will, but there is no point playing TV money-victim anymore. This technology will eventually remove the enormous discrepancies in our game, so I’m off to buy one of the boxes, just to take a look, of course.
4-in-1-row DVD, £10.99, on CQN Bookstore, still available for Father’s Day (Sunday)!
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Apologies to one and all for inadvertently referring to Garry Hooper as a famous cowboy of yester year.
Great Movie
MiT
Marion Robert Morisson my mam telt me! :)
Easy one – nae Google, mind – name the actors who played the Magnificent Seven…
Bournesoup … I may get banned from CQN for saying this …. and normally, remakes are never as good as the original … and I’m not saying it is as important as the Seven Samurai (which is classic cinema) … but, as a film, I liked the M7 better than tSS!
and Eli Wallach .. a little Jewish guy from new York is brilliant as the lead bandito!
Clogher – there was a Harrison Ford movie as well?
Mike in Toronto,
Maureen O’Hara is still a brilliant Irishwoman.
Going to court and risking her career instead of saying an oath to the British Crown…
and took on Hollywood bigwigs.
Clogher
Curiously Amazon have deleted Kodi from their store re: pirating but it has just been added to Google AppStore so go figure. Because it had been removed from Amazon the tutorial to add to the Amazon Fire TV box and stick has changed http://www.tvaddons.ag/install-kodi-amazon-fire-tv/
P67 if this is not allowed please delete
I would definitely have Gary Hooper back , the guy scores goals its that simple.I don’t know why it has’nt worked out for him at Norwich but better players than him have struggled at new clubs (Ian Rush anyone) this can be down to many things but for me someone who averaged 30 or so goals a season up here would do for me.
Good Evening.
Today, Graham Spiers wrote an article about inexperienced Mark Warburton taking up the manager’s job at Sevco, and compared it to Ronny arriving at Celtic.
Irritated, I started clattering the keyboard, and here is the outcome.
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/taxi-for-the-clumpany
Enjoy the rest of the day!
This is driving me mad now cos my bride says she knows the name of the Harrison Ford film and she’s not telling…
field ….horst buchholz is the one I usually forget, but have seen the film so many times now! …
It is a little known fact that ‘Magnificent 7’ director John Sturges got the idea for the title from watching Henrik Larsson videos.
fieldofdrams,
100 per cent with Brad Pitt.
The other one starred Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent and Brendan Gleeson.
A footnote to that was that the used my local for a few scenes. Suffice to say many of my mates were extras and had a ball. They had so many takes and re takes…taxi.
clogher … I didn’t know that about Ms. O’Hara …. think she just got bumped up a few notches on my Top 10 list of lovely actresses!
Glendaly’s … ha!
a ceiler gonof rust
18:37 on 17 June, 2015
Enjoy the rest of yer trip mate … HH
Almore
Done mate. Cheers.
Almore
you have mail
HH
Another good read, Clumpany, keep on Clumping
Mike in Toronto,
If you can read her autobiography.
A really good read.
Clogher
Mr Clumpany
Magic! Enjoying your words. :)
Patrick27
“In saying that, yes I do believe CL Last 16 is higher achievement than EL QFs, but semi’s and final personally I think the same or even higher. Just personal opinion though, but the standard of pot 3 teams in CL are about the same as latter stages EL, and arguably a few Pot 2 CL teams, so beating those standard teams over a succession of knockout ties is a very good achievement.”
I gave the list of teams that make it to those stages. They do not stand close comparison with the riches and rankings of the teams that regularly make it to CL quarters and beyond. Seville have won the last two Europas and won two more Uefa finals in 2006 and 2007 but they have only one managed to reach a CL last 16 and were beaten by Fenerbace.
It is true that recently clubs have taken it more seriously with Chelsea, Porto and Atletico deigning to win it but before 2009 you do not see many CL final stags teams competing. You see lesser teams like Espanyol, Middlesboro, Sporting and CSKA.
clogher
you have me convinced. I always appreciate a good book, and I do enjoy biographies, so I will give it a read. thanks.
mike
I rewatched Seven Samurai not that long ago, it was hard to stay with.
Plus it didn’t have Elmer Bernstein’s soundtrack
bourne … I did a bit of japanese stuff at university, so developed a taste for some of the films … Tokyo Story one of the best films ever …..
but you are right …. the soundtrack for M7? … unquestionably, one of the best pieces of movie music ever! even watching it as an adult, I hear that music, and feel like a little kid again … it is how movies were supposed to make you feel!
speaking of music … have Allision Kraus playing in the background …’When you say nothing at all’ … what a lovely singer!
The Water Margin
Ruled the world in the 70’s
love
Can’t believe there’s some guys against Hooper coming back, the guy is a goal machine, the best striker we’ve had since the King HH
DD
Dearie me,you don’t ken whit a Jews Harp is?
Yon wee instrument after the gunshot.
https://youtu.be/7jW4ZHrIeDY
SFTB
The issue is though the Last 16 would be as far as we would go. Regularly the last 8 in the CL is only full of the richest clubs that we have no chance of properly competing with like Barca, Real, Chelsea, Bayern, PSG etc
The EL is a competition we could be successful in – latter stages EL is possibly the best we can achieve now in the current climate, which isn’t going to change anytime soon
EL latter stage teams won’t be CL QF teams unless they are one of the 10/12 richest teams in Europe and have just had a poor season
I’m more than happy being seen to be competitive with teams like Sevilla, Benfica, Sporting, Basle, Valencia, Atletico, in a well fought, exciting competition. CL QFs is beyond us now – and its all to do with money as we know
HH
Tokyo Story
Watched a contemporary Irish movie earlier today.
FRANK.
Decent account of a mentally ill musician. Fassbender + Maggie Gyllenthal. Nothing earth shattering though.
It looks like an attempt to channel some of the madness from Captain Beefheart but it fails. Beefheart was a tyrant. Frank is too nice. Beefheart was more out there.
Lennon nmc
Know now! Thanks. That movie was out when I was born. :)
Western Theme Tunes by The London Philly has allll the classic tunes and although bought in the 70’s by my bro (cos I’m not an old bassa) is always worth listening to.
Mag 7, Good Bad Ugly, High Chap, Big country….etc etc etc (as Yul would say)
The above could be a list of CQN’rs :-)
jeez arya stark needs a good bit of counselling – serious issues
Livi Bhoy
I appreciate the clarification but I was responding to your comment that the CL last 16 was not as bit an achievement as winning the Uefa/Europa (which, of course, we have not done).
“You can’t compare the EL to the Petrofac cup. You just can’t even get close with that. ”
I wasn’t comparing the two trophies as an equation; I was comparing the preference for success (winning the Europa) as being a higher achievement than reaching the last 16 CL. You used the comparison that bumping around the lower regions of the EPL was less of a deal than winning a trophy or a softer league. Of course fans prefer winning to losing but that does not make the achievement bigger (16th in the EPL is usually achieved by a better team than is 1st or 2nd in the Championship, hence my crack about winning the Petrofac, which brings glory but not achievement, as opposed to finishing 10th in the SPFL (the half of my Petrofac equation which you left out) which is an achievement but not a glorious triumph.
I stand by my view that CL last 16 is a better standard than being a losing Euro finalist. I do so without diminishing the sense of occasion and exhileration we felt in 2003 but our 3 last 16s are a more noteworthy achievement. As I said to Patrick27, Seville have won 4 of those Uefa/Europa things since we lost ours but they have only one last 16 CL to their achievements.
They will have cranked up lots of co-efficient points and, most importantly, they won the bloody thing. And they did it 4 times.
But they still “only” finished 4th in Spain and will have to beat a good team to even qualify for CL Group stages, far less achieve another last 16 or better.
It is a subjective and a tactical preference between competing in the CL and competing in the Europa. I’d still take my chances with the big boys in the CL and trying to fluke another last 16 and attempt a 4th time lucky win.
I say this because I have little confidence in us repeating our 2003 run. I think we are more likely to attract good players with the promise of CL exposure than with the promise of a moderate Europa run. I do not think we are best suited to a knock out format where one bad game can kill your chances. I do not think we would be favoured in the betting to make it to even a quarter final stage of Europa and no player will come to us because we played in earlier Europa rounds.
Captain Beefheart,
I hope to see you in Ireland, next year.
HH,
Clogher
Bourne,
The movies are,
Perrier’s Bounty,
Devil’s Own, and
Captain Lightfoot.
Thanks for not googling.
Well Done to fieldofdrams
Patrick27
A team from Cyprus, Apoel, made the CL quarters recently with the help of a few Brazilians. It would be hard but not impossible to emulate that.
In many ways, with the knockout format and the greater interest being shown in Europa by bigger clubs these days, I do not think Celtic would successfully negotiate a series of knock out ties against decent opposition and I don’t think anyone would notice or comment if we made it just to the last 32 or 16 there.
No, for reasons of attracting players, for prestige, and for aiming our wee lance at the big boys, I still prefer to go for the Big Cup.