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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Given they have no money and Warbuton’s experience in developing young players, anyone think the 3 sacked Leicester City players may be paraded over in G51 in the coming weeks?
What do you get if you stick a duck in an oven……………………….. it’s Bill Withers..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo
BB
If G51 is doomdome post code?
Then, Aye! ;)
clogher celt- the politicos are killin this ole’ blog. Wish they would start PQN.
They are insidious and need their stones rattled by hob-nailed booties!
You know who you are MF’s!
delaneys dunky,
Tonight is my last night in the old town, been a very busy time. Spent it in Chandlers with family and friends discussing Celtic and many other things. Thank you for coming over on Saturday night, it was very much appreciated and enjoyed.
Hail Hail and God Bless, enjoy the new season that is coming soon.
AR
It wouldn’t surprise me if Ched Evans rocked up there either! They have no shame!
AR
Was a pleasure to meet your good self big red. ;)
Will know your dad at mass and in Chandlers Church now.
Safe journey. God bless. Hail Hail
balornock bhoy
23:54 on 17 June, 2015
I know what you mean. My guess is Jack Warburton will sign.
Marvin needs some healin` – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjlSiASsUIs
antipodean red
00:00 on
18 June, 2015
delaneys dunky,
Tonight is my last night in the old town, been a very busy time. Spent it in Chandlers with family and friends discussing Celtic and many other things. Thank you for coming over on Saturday night, it was very much appreciated and enjoyed.
Hail Hail and God Bless, enjoy the new season that is coming soon.
AR
————————-
saint johns port glasgow,
your born,
keep it lit
balornock bhoy
23:54 on 17 June, 2015
Given they have no money and Warbuton’s experience in developing young players, anyone think the 3 sacked Leicester City players may be paraded over in G51 in the coming weeks?
My first thoughts on reading the story! Mind I also expected Ched Evans to arrive months ago.
i rambled about this game a few times recently when the bold skinny viking , harrald. stopped the ten.
that game versus kilmarnock
nit one, pearl one, miss four, score four.
but seriously,
he could have scored eight, it wasnt poor finishing, it was woodwork and defending.
valhalla awaits
celtic 4 kilmarnock 0, 1998.
better than hooper.
ps, look how bloody good henrik is in midfield positions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD2xq19Osss
3 racists and a rapist – aye they’ll fit right in Craiglechie10.
if the leicester 3 and chad evens arrive at the edwardian toilet block it will be on a prison bus,
rangers will be turning in their grave,
and the old manager will be rowing the boat ashore,
minus a few who paddled out.
art of war,
For what it is worth…Scotland is going through a transformation. It is only logical that some of the debates will hit CQN.
CQN is a place where people feel able to express themselves and debate things.
Having said that, CQN is about Glasgow Celtic.
I never started with Dublin2016 in mind…it just kind of a happened.
Am I a politico?
Clogher
Proudbhoy, congratulations you got there in the end and actually answered your own question.
Anyone who thinks Ronny is going to change his system is pissing in the wind.
It is one main striker, it’s not hard to comprehend, that’s a full season now and still I see teams posted before games with two strikers. My question is what’s the point.
Now the problem with Griff and Hooper is they are better with a partner, but we don’t play that way.
Griff has had a lot of praise and rightly so, however his performance in the semi against ICT was horrendous. Every time the ball was played up to him he lost it, Commons was also shocking.
I would suggest we look for a striker who can play the lone striker because in Europe Griff just doesn’t have what it takes.
AoW
They are a sinking ship. Rats desert. Not join. :)
Sid
Agree totally. Lewandowski is my dream. Any like him?? :)
Clogher – nay!
You are an inspiration! We have more plants than Beechgrove Garden on here :-( Most of them claim to be Labour men on here but i have my doubts)
DD- aye i suppose but they are all in the sewer.
Delaneys dumky yep he is ideal for the role what a player, any other suggestions in our price range?
Michael rowed the boat ashore….hallejulah!
after we stopped their cheating , stopped the myth ten,
the season after with doctor jo , we beat then 5-1 with lubo, henrik, 2 world class players,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zQ9NbYUTFc
how the feck did we loss the league.
ebt;s. corrupt referees, sfa blind eyes.
strip their titles, cheating bastards.
ps, 5-2, going on 10.
Sid
Unfortunately no. Sorry. There’s only one Robert!!! :)
.
Hooper..!!!!!!!!!!!
Well that has Just Ruined My Friday..
Bring back Sammi The Greek Maldini as a Direct replacement for Van Dyjk..
001
Ps..Check out Hooper’s Sats in Europe or Up in Inverness..0.000088..
He was the Same at Norwich..Only Scored in Meaningless matches
Art of War,
Thanks, we will see the Celtic men in 2016.
I hope you will be here.
What a weekend awaits.
HH,
Clogher
Nite all – work awaits….
Clogher
Thank you for your continued effort. Peace and Love!
Sorry, just been pointed out to me Celtic women too.
Maureen O’Hara paves the way for Irish citizens to be recognized as such…
Maureen O’Hara was born into an eccentric arts-loving family who lived in Ranelagh, a suburb on the outskirts of Dublin. Maureen knew quite early that acting was what she wanted to do – and she got some jobs on the radio, and what amounts to summer stock – she was only 13, 14 years old … but finally, she got serious enough to begin studying for real. Her desire to be a good actress is supreme.
Oh, and let’s not forget the groundbreaking moment when O’Hara became an American citizen (while maintaining her Irish citizenship) in 1946 and she put up a stink about being referred to as a “British subject”:
There must have been a thousand questions on their standard questionnaire. After I completed it, I went and took the exam. I must have passed because I was then sent before a woman, an officer of the court, who instructed me to raise my right hand and forswear my allegiance to Great Britian. FULL STOP!
Forswear my allegiance to Britain? I didn’t know what she was talking about. I told her, “Miss, I’m very sorry, but I cannot forswear an allegiance that I do not have. I am Irish and my allegiance is to Ireland.” She looked at me with consternation for a moment and then said, “Well, then you better read these papers.” She handed me back the stack of papers I had filled out before my exam. I perused them and was stunned to see that on every page where I had written “Irish” as my former nationality, they had crossed it out with a pen and written “English”.
I told the woman, “I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t accept this. It’s impossible for me to do. I am Irish. I was born in Ireland and will only do this if I am referred to as an Irish citizen.” She seemed perturbed that I would break the routine of the allegiance ceremony, and said, “I can’t do that. You’ll have to go to court to obtain the order for me to do it.”
“Fine,” I said. “When shall I go back to court?” I didn’t have to come back. I did it right then and was taken straight to the courtroom. No attorneys were allowed in the courtroom with me, only my two witnesses. I stood in front of the judge, whose name I can’t remember, and listened as the clerk explained why I was there before the court. Then I told the judge, “I am Irish. I will not forswear allegiance to Great Britain because I owe no allegiance to Great Britain. I was born in Dublin, Ireland.”
The judge and I then went into a very long discussion of all of Irish history. He challenged my assertions. We kept going over it and over it, back and forth, but I wouldn’t give an inch. I couldn’t. Finally he said, “We’re going to have to find out what Washington thinks.” He instructed the clerk, “Check Washington and see what they consider a person like Miss O’Hara.” The clerk left the courtroom and returned shortly after that. He told the judge, “Washington says she is a British subject.” I was furious and told the judge, “I am not responsible for your antiquated records in Washington, D.C.” He promptly ruled against me.
I had no choice but to thank him and tell the court, “Under those circumstances, I cannot accept nor do I want to become an American citizen.” I turned to walk out of that courtroom, but having the kind of personality that I do, thought I couldn’t give up without taking one last crack at him. I was halfway out of the courtroom when I turned back to him and said, “Your Honor, have you thought for one moment about what you are trying to force upon and take away from my child and my unborn children and my unborn grandchildren?” He sat back and listened intently as I went on, “You are trying to take away from them their right to boast and brag about their wonderful and famous Irish mother and grandmother. I just can’t accept that.”
He’d had enough. The judge threw his hands up and explained, “Get this woman out of here! Give her anything on her papers that she wants, but get her out of here!” The clerk moved in my direction and I simply said, “Thank you, Your Honor.”
I didn’t know at that time that my certificate of naturalization had already been created, and that they had listed my former nationality as English. Sometime between that date and the date when I was called to be sworn in as an American citizen, they changed my certificate in accordance with the order of the court. Where my former nationality was printed, they had erased “English” and typed over it “Irish”. On the back of this document it states that “the erasure made on this certificate as to Former Nationality ‘Irish’ was made before issuance, to conform to petition. Name changed by order of the court.” It is signed by the U.S. District Court.
This was the first time in the history of the United States of America that the American government recognized an Irish person as being Irish. It was one hell of a victory for me because otherwise I would have had to turn down my American citizenship. I could not have accepted it with my former nationality being anything other than Irish, because no other nationality in the world was my own.
A scandal arose in the wake of this, when incorrect reports came out that she had challenged the court during the ceremony in which the oath of allegiance was taken. Judges across the land wrote terrible things about Miss O’Hara, and the federal judge who had presided over that particular allegiance ceremony said that Miss O’Hara was a liar, and that the incident never happened.
He was correct that the event did not happen in his courtroom, but very wrong that it didn’t happen at all.
The implications of the decision to list Maureen O’Hara as “Irish” were widespread – and crossed the Atlantic. O’Hara writes:
Apparently, the Irish government was unaware that its citizens were being classified as subjects of Great Britain. On January 29, Prime Minister Eamon De Valera issued the following statement:
We are today an independent republic. We acknowledge no sovereignty except that of our own people. A fact that our attitude during the recent war should have amply demonstrated. Miss O’Hara was right when she asserted she owed no allegiance to Britain and therefore had none which she could renounce.
The prime minister then dispatched his envoys to Washington, D.C., where the Republic of Ireland formally requested that this policy be changed. The policy was changed, and my stand had paved the way for every Irish immigrant to the United States, including my own brothers and sisters, to be legally recognized as Irish from that day forward.
Pretty amazing.
beachball sunday,
we won, they ebt to win a league with sfa refs help,
but enjoy how funny it all is,
larsson was world class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmGqg0qiV_M
green oak tree,
post more often,
get yourself on the larkfield to kilblain street bus, walk to the library,
seriously, miss your input.
Thanks DD,
Looking forward to next year…a year to remember.
green oak tree,
Fair play for finding that.
Maureen risked her career for Ireland. I don’t know how many know.
Thanks,
Clogher
Stuart Cosgrove hands Traynor his arse on Your Call With Jim Traynor 15-09-12
—————–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RTdzBzRpgU
Clogher
The amount of Scots who are making the pilgrimage home to Ireland next Easter will amaze you. Talk of my boozer. :)
Someone asked earlier about the cast of –
The Magnificent Seven:
yuL brinner
eli wAllach
bRad dexter
jameS coburn
Steve mcqueen
charles brOnson
robert vaughN
Twilight Zone music…
Saint Stivs
Thanx for that comment…..Much appreciated…………