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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Too many fearties Paul67
I have been doing this for about 5 years now.
Nothing new
Thompson Twins@13.21
Godwin’s Law strikes again. Never fails!
Made my day, ha ha ha.
Keep up the good work!
Android TV boxes are magic.
The key to them over the last couple of years I have had one is that they were a bit tricky to operate and they were also still a bit under the radar.
Now they are very popular and Sky/Virgin/BT etc know about them.
SportsDevil was the go to app for football. Loads of links and usually a show in to get the fitba on. I believe it is going very soon. Majority of the links don;t work.
Naxi-X is the next port of call for Sky Sports and the like.
If you like to have the best picture possible.
If you want to be be able to pause, rewind, record, etc.
If you want to get mates round and guarantee them the game.
If you don;t want to hunt for a link after 5 mins because the one you had has stopped working.
If you want to always watch Sky Sports or BT Sports links.
Do NOT get an Android box.
They are not fool proof and once you have a link it doesn;t mean it won;t stop working.
You may have a link via a foreign channel with no commentary or foreign commentators.
I watched a game via an American channel last season from the EPL and it was the BBC team doing the commentary and corporate box presentation with the American Sky Sports News stle presenters briefly taking over at half time – Lineker is a money making machine. Think it was Arsenal v Chelsea.
The broadcast may be a slight time delay. The picture may appear fuzzy at times. It may start buffering mid match and then you miss a key moment and have to wait for a replay.
The remote or keyboard will offer you the delights of fast forward/pause/rewind/etc. It is to be used at your own risk. If you spend 30 mins (that is how long it can take to find a working stream/link) to get the game you want to see I would not risk losing that stream to fast forward or rewind.
You can watch live TV on it and the movies are excellent.It’s worth getting one for the movies alone.
The only time I rely on it for the fitba is when I am stuck in the house and I am missing the game. I put the radio on and the volume down. You can get links when the game is 3pm on a Saturday at home.
This is the spiel I blurt out to any of my mates who are interested in one of these boxes. Too many of them expect to just push a button and get the same quality of their Sky dish and all the same perks. This is not the case and a lot of graft and sometimes a fruitless search.
These boxes are great but if you want the match guaranteed and you are not prepared to put some donkey work in to find a stream then stick with Sky/BT/Virginmedia/etc.
The Android option doesn;t suit everyone.
I also keep thinking that these will eventually get canned but I am happy as long as it lasts.
I watch at least 5 movies a month before they are in the cinema. All HD quality and excellent sound and buffering.
Good luck to those that decide to go down the Android box route.
If I can help let me know.
LB
BTW KJam,
I have a lot of sympathy with your employment circs. “A job for life” was our parents’ luxury. Nowadays, a job for 5 years is pretty much the limit, outside of some public sector roles. I’m at the other end of the tunnel from you, my youngest having left school this month. I find the change in outlook very amenable.
Back when he and his sister were young, hardly a day went by when I wasn’t thinking about the next financial disaster – the last one was 2009 btw, when both me and the missus were made redundant inside 3 months. Many others on here had a similar experience, and you need only look at the Celtic season book numbers since 2008 to get some evidence of how widespread the issues were, and indeed, remain.
Good news is you’re into engineering and construction, which means you can turn your hand to many areas of work. If you want to stay in the energy business, we’re not likely to run out of need any time soon. It’s just that the projects will be different one decade to the next.
For example, pals who were rigging mobile phone masts 15 years ago are now rigging the grid down from Beauly. Same skills, new projects.
By the time your youngest signs his first contract with Celtic, you’ll be just about completing the new Supercritical Hydrogen plant at Longannet :)
TBB
As I say, we need to greatly reduce the amount of energy we use, be prepared to pay considerably more for what we do use, and find the best mix of power generating systems to suit circumstances, all the while reducing the output of CO2 and other emissions.
——————————————-
I am absolute agreement of this. This can be achieved if technology evolves and improves. Needs a market with invester confidence to do so.
I am not saying wind is the answer but does have its place in the energy mix.
I just feel exposed at the moment, I hope I can cling on to my job awhile longer at least until my wife returns to work otherwise we are goosed. Since the election result I have been sick with worry. Perhaps a Celtic blog isn’t the place for this though.
Whatever happens I will still be following Celtic, probably not from the Section 201 anymore though, probably from a dodgey online stream ;)
Buy Celtic TV and use a proxy service such as Easy-hide-ip. Simples
SFTB
Some quality career advice there :¬)
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
14.14
You snooze you lose
LB
mail me the best box to buy if you could ta
Patrick27
I share your thoughts on Leigh and what he has shown.
I think he has more in his locker and will score for us quite comfortably in Europe
Sound advice
Ajax boss Frank de Boer has told Virgil van Dijk he should snub a move to Sunderland in favour of staying with Celtic.
The Black Cats look as though they may have missed out on Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson despite agreeing a loan fee with the Gunners, he apparently has set his sights on a return to West Ham.
Now Van Dijk has been urged to either stay at Celtic or find another Champions League club by Dutch legend De Boer.
He said: “To just leave Celtic who will be playing in the Champions League themselves next season for a team that could be fighting a relegation battle in England isn’t deserving of van Dijk.
“We have seen time and time again players who play in the Champions League have such a better chance of representing their national team.
“That should be a real consideration for him.”
LiviBhoy
14:27 on
17 June, 2015
The only time I rely on it for the fitba is when I am stuck in the house and I am missing the game. I put the radio on and the volume down.
—————————————————————————-
You`d be as well switching it off. Will save your batteries………
Hi all ,have been a user for over 1 year does what it says on the tin.you can now download kodi straight to your pc or laptop free just go to kodi.tv and download kodi for windows only takes a minute ,then download their wizard and that will set it all up for you.HH
Billybear
Hahahahaha
That does not read well. I listen to the radio and watch the screen. That make sense?
LB
Yes, Liviboy, I was being fecetious!!
Hopper no thanks .done nothing at Norwich
.and lattery done nothing for the hoops.Jordan Rhodes would be a better addition to the current squad.
Thanks TBB for your kind words of encouragement.
The older guys I work with all say they have been through the redundancy issue before, some of them a couple of times. Its particularly bad timing for me, but given your experience of both you and your wife being made redundant within 3 months, I guess that is life.
I never worried about these things before, I was footloose and free. Having kids changes everything, the sense of providing for your loved ones.
From the BBC
There are getting on for two million UK citizens for whom Greece’s deepening political and economic crisis is becoming a personal, nagging worry.
The country is high on the list of favourite holiday destinations.
The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) says around 5% of the 36 million holidays taken by the British abroad are to Greece and its many islands.
All holidays have an element of – to misquote a well-known US statesman – predictable unpredictability – simple ponderables such as what lies behind that twist in the coastline – how good will tonight’s restaurant be.
But Greece’s quota of unpredictable unpredictability is getting to the level beyond which some people can bear.
Rising fears
Helena Taylor, a care worker from Birmingham, said: “I can’t be the only person to be worried about this. We have two holidays booked this year – as we usually do – and the first is in just a few weeks’ time. If Greece exits the euro I’ve read that an ’emergency drachma’ will be worth only about 10% of the euro’s value. What currency do we take?”
null
Louise Killner: a euro exit could mean a bargain night at the taverna
The anxiety felt by some holiday-makers is summed up by a comment made on the travel website, TripAdvisor, by Delly from Manchester: “Just wondering if anyone knows what would happen if we were on holiday in Greece/Greek Islands and they a) went bust or b) left the euro? I guess potentially our euros would be worth nothing! Would our insurance cover us if we had to leave?”
The rise of such worries has coincided with a steady fall in the number of people visiting the country.
Abta’s latest figures show UK visitor numbers dropped from 2.4 million in 2006, to an expected 1.7 million in 2010 with the same number estimated for last year.
There are no figures yet compiled for this year.
But Sean Tipton, from Abta said this was not all down to political worries: “To give you a bit of context, virtually everywhere in the world saw a fall in UK visitors in 2009 and 2010 due to the credit crunch and fall in value of sterling.
“Greece has also been affected by the competition of other Eastern Mediterranean destinations, plus it has an image problem of being relatively expensive – even though the Office for National Statistics says the average daily spend in 2010 was £53 compared with Turkey – perceived as better value – where the spend was a very similar £47.”
Of course we have plans in place [for a euro exit]. Should the drachma be introduced we have everything ready for conversion – the consumer would not notice at one level… although personally I don’t think it will happen
Fortis Lambrianides , Olympic Holidays
Struggling
Tourism is very important to Greece’s economy, with the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (Sete) saying it accounts for 17% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and gives employment to a similar percentage of people.
But it admits political unrest is making it hard for it to maintain those numbers.
A Sete spokesman said: “Unfortunately, due to the continuing European economic crisis, the recent negative media images of riots in the centre of Athens… and the recovery of the North Africa countries, we are forecasting a small drop from our targets.
“We are working towards developing, by 2020, Greece as one of the top 10 destinations in the world.”
And it is attracting new groups of tourists. It says that although euro-area numbers have fallen, those from the Balkan countries and Russia have risen.
Discounts
There are signs that one of Greek tourism’s other image problems – high prices – is in the process of correction.
In those areas where demand has fallen, TripAdvisor reported hotel prices in a number of popular Greek holiday resorts dropped substantially over the past year, with Corfu seeing the biggest drop of up to 20% for room rates.
Specialist traditional tour operators Olympic Holidays has discounted some of its holiday packages by far more – up to 60%.
Commercial director Fortis Lambrianides said this was partly a simple seasonal discount: “This is nothing unusual. Traditionally the charter operators do not want to be left with a stock of seats – so it’s like selling fruit and veg when it’s getting past its sell-by date.”
But he said this year had seen something different in that hoteliers had been “more forthcoming with price cuts – particularly for early season bookings – which has helped us to come up with good discounts like that”.
Should travellers worry about going to Greece?
Its government is likely to be at best a precarious coalition – at worst no government at all.
On top of that, strikes and serious social disorder have hit key services including travel.
And the parlous state of the Greek economy means the prospect of businesses going under is also a serious threat.
In most cases, travellers can be compensated for these problems through insurance schemes and other consumer protections – although not the nuisance caused by disruption.
null
Currency speculation: arrive with euros, pay with drachma?
Abta says it is not giving any particular advice in terms of Greece and potential company failures, other than its usual message that booking a package holiday or, a flight plus accommodation and or car hire through a travel agent, will mean that your money is protected.
Private hirers can take comfort too.
Specialist villa agents Pure Crete, one of any number of such companies, is confident it can minimise disruption.
The company’s Louise Killner says: “The suppliers we use for our flying are UK-based and these are covered under the CAA’s regulatory Atol scheme. So in the event of any serious problems we can repatriate customers who are already in Crete (with a flight organised by Atol to return them to the UK) or to provide a refund to customers who have a forward booking with us.”
She says its customers do not seem concerned, and that bookings have risen recently.
Euro-exit?
Top 10 UK destinations [2010]
◾Spain 9.25m
◾ France 6.35m
◾US 2.13m
◾Turkey 1.63m
◾Portugal 1.62m
◾Italy 1.57m
◾Greece 1.53m
◾Irish Republic 916,000
◾Netherlands 825,000
◾Cyprus 769,000
The scariest unpredictable unpredictable for many though is the spectre of a forced exit from the euro – something that is technically impossible, but nonetheless discussed incessantly.
No-one knows how this could happen or what it would mean on the ground.
But again, there are reassuring words from holiday firms operating in Greece.
Abta says: “If the worst were to happen and Greece were to leave the euro there would be a transition period in adopting a new currency. If customers are still concerned there is a very wide range of all-inclusive package holiday options available.”
Pure Crete’s Louise Killner is also relaxed about the prospect: “If Greece exits the euro this won’t affect their bookings – our contracts in Crete are with local villa owners who are paid in sterling, they usually own the villa outright and have other jobs.
“People understand that whatever happens to the Greek currency their euro or pound will buy more on holiday than before.”
Olympic Holidays’ Fortis Lambrianides says his company is prepared, and neither his business nor his customers should be worried: “Of course we have plans in place [for a euro exit]. Should the drachma be introduced we have everything ready for conversion – the consumer would not notice at one level as it is purely a transaction between us and the hoteliers – although personally I don’t think it will happen.”
null
A Greek holiday could provide plenty to think about
Louise Killner says if anything, holiday budgets should stretch further: “It is highly likely that customers holidaying on the island will find eating out at local tavernas for example more affordable!”
The Independent’s veteran traveller Simon Calder says Greece is getting his vote again this year, but he is going prepared: “I’m looking forward to my annual trip to Greece – exploring another corner of this beautiful, historic and welcoming nation.
“But, I’m taking cash, in the form of low-denomination euro notes, just in case Greece abandons the euro, or the euro abandons Greece, while I’m there. Apart from the traditional Greek preference for cash, there’s the likelihood that electronic banking would freeze during any abrupt change of currency.”
For those who say they are waiting for a Greek exit from the euro to take advantage of a collapse in the currency, there is this thought from Simon: “I’ve been in other parts of the world where the currency has gone through meltdown, leaving the population feeling poorer and aggrieved: Ukraine, as the USSR broke up in 1991, for example.”
But he says it tends to lead to a warm welcome: “There is a lot of anger, but it is directed mostly at politicians and foreign agencies such as the IMF – not the visitor, who is correctly regarded as part of the solution to pressing economic woes. ”
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It’s only a matter of time before the Huns are linked with signing Ronaldo and messi
Huns linked with signing Ronaldo and Messi!
Fishul!!
Give Ashley back his £5m….Get 51% of shirt sales, times 500,000, get Messi AND Ronaldo And Lewis McLeod. Job done. Squirm.
coolmore mafia
13:19 on 17 June, 2015
Bob LobLaw
12:53 on
17 June, 2015
I’m no fan of Sky or Sky sports. I find much of what the Murdoch empire stands for repellant. That said, before looking at set top boxes as an alternate for viewing sport on TV please consider where you’re £30 for a set top box goes. These are not legitimate businesses. These organisations are one of many ways in which organised criminal gangs raise money to fund drug trafficking, people trafficking, prostitution and other hideously abusive practices. I’d rather have no football than put money in the pockets of these people.
>>>
Bob, Sky and their associated companies have a history and raison d’etre of undermining democracy.
Apologies for delay in replying. No argument from me there. My point is the alternative is no better.
@timbhoy2
Hooper did plenty at Celtic. That counts more.
Rhodes is way outside our reach.
Masty,
Glad you had a good time in Vegas, how did you like the hotel? That’s the same hotel where Elvis started.
HH
gsu
Is Iceland still Europes largest Banana producer?
:-)
HH
Awe_Naw, in the last 5 yrs we’ve seen fibre and where that doesn’t exist, faster ADSL. It’s all about the feed quality, when that’s sorted – and from what I hear it is now – the flood will start.
LiviBhoy, thanks for that info.
ThompsonTwin
“Since 1945, there have been many HUNDREDS of bills, measures, policies and proposals, put forward and enacted by the Labour Party that initially lifted our people out of dire poverty, then gave them New Rights, transformed the Workplace, Education, Health, Benefits and Human Rights, a record in which to be rightly proud…..”
Absolutely spot on, however, the “New” Labour party bears no resemblance to the party who did all that. Therein lies the problem, por cierto.
Scorchio – way down south.
Solar powered shower used and about to use a box to watch the 4th ODI between England and New Zealand.
Modren life isn’ t always rubbish.!
Paul67
The Android market itself is exactly as I described but there are other products out there which are much more reliable.
I got a loan of one first and have loaned mine a few times to see how people liked it. Quite a few have said they couldn;t be bothered with the hassle.
Good luck
LB
BMCUWP
@
12.52
No worries mhate…didn’t notice ought :O)HH
Paul67
Money talks .
The EPL will not implode any time soon due to Media revenue reduction.
Sky may suffer from competitors stealing their market share and therefore revenue streams,but the EPL will remain in demand.
The only way for Celtic to become one of the really big clubs ( income wise ) is to join the EPL.
Hoping for anything else to happen is a waste of emotion.
TT
They
livibhoy…
Eventually, the product will be easily accessible.
That’s when, the big money disappeares for the clubs that are dependant on it.
Our time is coming.HH
FAC’s response to Paul Wheelhouse’s statement in Holyrood yesterday.
——–
The Mysterious Case of the Review that never was…
We wake this morning in the knowledge that the Review, promised in the original legislation, and much awaited by those of us wishing to have our opportunity to present our detailed evidence of the fundamental flaws in the Act, is, as far as the government is concerned, done and dusted. Despite the statements of the University of Stirling and the lead researchers of the Evaluation Report that their work cannot be seen as the Review itself, the Communities Safety Minister told Parliament yesterday that the publishing of this report fulfilled their requirement under the legislation. The depth of cynicism and sense of impregnability involved in pulling such a cheap stunt is really quite breathtaking and is a serious worry for all citizens.
Representatives of FAC were in Holyrood yesterday to witness the shambling and unconvincing statement by the Minister. Holyrood rules allow one question each and no follow-up to statements so he was able to take the questions put by opposition MPs from all parties and simply not answer them or answer them inadequately. In an incredible act of dishonesty Paul Wheelhouse even went so far as to infer in his statement, and state outright in his answer to a direct question from Michael McMahon, that FAC supported his plans to fund SACRO to run a Diversion from Prosecution project. The idea that we would agree with a plan to subject young people to a 10 week course to learn how to address their ‘behaviour’ in using the odd swear word or expressing their political views is laughable but that is what he told MSPs, not once but twice. This is despite the fact that we could not have been clearer in stating that we would play no part in deterring young people from actions which we did not think were criminal in the first place. In fact the words ‘We will not be doing that’ were used – no lack of clarity there, you’ll agree.
We were alerted before the session that he intended to misrepresent us and were able to corner one of his senior advisers who had been present at our meeting to tell him to make sure that no such lie was aired in the Chamber. We believe that the Advisor did do that and that a message was delivered to Wheelhouse to that effect minutes before he delivered his statement. However, when it came to that part of his speech he stumbled and seemed unsure of how to depart from his script so he just ploughed on. Then, having said it, he held the line under questioning from McMahon. We will be writing to him to ask for an explanation and a retraction of this incredible suggestion.
However, this piece of nonsense, is really of no consequence compared to some of his other comments yesterday. Among other things, he graciously encouraged the Irish community to celebrate their heritage but to be careful ‘not to offend others’ in so doing… He felt the need to say this despite the fact that his own government’s figures show that Catholics (which is still a fairly close proxy for those of Irish descent) represent 84% of the ‘victims’ in OB charges, with the Protestant community having 6 victims (12%) and one each for the Jewish and the Muslim communities. Perhaps that was his message to the Irish/Catholic community – will you stop visibly celebrating your identity because you are attracting sectarian/racist abuse!
He went on to confirm that yes it turns out that freedom of speech is being restricted for football fans but he reassured us that this was only in the context of a regulated football match! Well, there you go now, limiting your freedom of speech one venue at a time.
The presence of FAC in the chamber seemed to have an unsettling effect on the Minister. Perhaps with his rather dim view of all football supporters he thought he might get some object or another stoated off his skull during his speech. Well, he better get used to it (our presence, his cranium is safe from us) because we need to up our game and we are calling on all football supporters to get behind this campaign. We need to be where they are; we need to harass them the way they harass us, we need to spoil their selfie-taking opportunities by inconveniently getting in the shot and we need to constantly remind them that this battle is, most certainly, not over.
sipsini
I think the time is coming when the TV deal will be almost worthless and the money will be made via advertisers.
Scotland could if we had the foresight to change the way TV deals are negotiated.
I notice Channel 5 have bought rights to the Football League which is the 3 lower divisions in England. They will show these at prime time on Saturday evenings at 9pm.
This is a big change in terrestrial TV broadcasting.
The SPFL need to think smarter and get us a better deal to keep our football at a decent level. The low revenue incomes actually help Celtic because looking at the Swiss Ramblers excellent analysis we will always have the most money and therefore the best players so the league is handicapped due to our larger support base.
What we should do is give the TV rights away for next to nothing. A channel 5 or another channel like ITV 2 or 4 would be happy to get involved. Sell the advertising space instead around the pitches and also behind the goal on the touchlines on the rolling board etc.
Smaller clubs can plaster advertising all over empty areas of their ground if they want.
What we get for our TV rights is a pittance anyway. Surely it could not be any worse.
What we then build up is a well known product and when the TV rights in future come up for tender Sky/BT/etc with their bigger sponsorship deals will come calling and in turn it means more revenue for the clubs.
Getting £400k or whatever it is a year for finishing 5th is seriously not great money. Surely a better advertising deal on either a game to game basis or throughout the season would work out better. The home team can get a much bigger share of the pie say a 70/30 share. This should even out the money that the smaller clubs generate against the money that bigger clubs generate via their attendances.
There is clearly a lot of dialogue around this but currently our football is spread across BT/SKY Sports and BBC/ALBA. This is crazy for a country our size. It should be one broadcaster and we should then own the rights to them sell them on. If VVD scores a 40 yard raker and the Dutch TV want to show it then the SPFL company should get the revenue or the club themselves.
There has to be a change and there also has to be a way to get kids back to the fitba. English lower league crowds will rise because every kid whether they have Sky Sports or not in England will watch those games on a Saturday night when fitba should be on the telly and then want to go play football and attend matches.
The SPFL have everything wrong at the minute.
New ideas need to be floated about and chances have to be taken. I don;t think we have the right people in charge to take the risks required. I would love to get the bunnets thoughts.
The world is changing very quickly. The key is to be ahead of the game regarding football coverage. Would Netflicks for instance be prepared to buy into fitba? Either on a subscription or game by game basis? Has anyone asked them?
The people at the top of our game are so comfortable and lazy of thought that they are not being pushed on these issues.
Barry Hearn can sell out arenas all over the country for a sport the attendees can;t even see. Now that is smart!
LB
TT
It’s not the demand that’s at issue, it’s the distribution channel.
As technology circumvents the channels of rights holders, the value of the rights diminish. The very fact that EPL and Sky pay former detectives to find and prosecute unlicensed venues screening games evidences the sensitivity of the subject.
It’s a poacher/gamekeeper scenario, with the rights holders needing ever more clever technology to stay one step ahead of the decoders. How many new ways to encrypt a signal can the broadcasters come up with that keeps them one step ahead of the pack? The pack is too large, it only takes one of the many millions to figure it out, and the encryption is useless.
The natural conclusion, if signal cannot be distributed securely, is that the cost of internet connection becomes a proxy for the price of viewing, in the same way the TV Licence does for terrestrial telly and radio.
That there is a major turf war between BT, Virgin and Sky for internet subscribers evidences their thinking in this regard.
I agree that it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but equally, the values the EPL is getting at the moment are artificial, and if it takes black market electronics to bring value back into equilibrium, I’ll take that.
In terms of Celtic in the EPL? Same old nothing. That Burnley etc are ‘now bigger than Ajax’ is somewhat profane, and to be honest, highlights the appalling inertia of the great teams of peripheral Europe to get up and do something about it.
Read Swiss Rambler from today on Celtic’s financial story. There’s little new in it to you or I, but the same applies to every European Cup Winner not resident in England, Germany, Spain or Italy, and even Spain and Italy now are sliding towards the grubber.
New technology drives new business models. Both Football and Broadcasting need new models that deliver value from the emerging techs. Celtic and Scotland can’t do that to any meaningful effect in isolation, but a collective response from the now disenfranchised, formerly great clubs of European football has increasing traction.
TBB
Greensideup-GBWO
14:01 on 17 June, 2015
Mike Bhoyle,
Laughed my arse off at your wee vignette there
HH
gsu
Thank you my friend
HH
MB
The Battered Bunnet
I think you make some good points on clubs outwith the top leagues.
I think that North and South Europe need to get round the table and set up a Northern and Southern European super league and play each other at the end of the season play offs for the Champion of Europe.
There isn;t even much point competing in the CL these days. I cringe when people go on about getting to the last 16 being a bigger achievement than winning the Europa League. Seriously winning a trophy is not as good as coming in 15th or 14th in another. I assume these same people would be happy to be lower table in the EPL rather than win the league and/or a cup in Scotland.
The future for Celtic long term is some kind of European League.
LB
Now far be it from me to encourage anyone to break the law of the land by watching ‘iffy’ streams from a foreign site that ‘pirates’ its feed from the Sky / BT cartel. I assume one requires a decent internet connection to receive the games and it is likely the cartel will apply for an injunction to force British internet providers to block access to these sites, somewhat similar to what has happened to P2P sites where movies and music were freely shared but are now inaccessible from the UK. Now it is alleged that for absolutely nothing, or a small monthly fee for a better quality service, one can get a VPN that allows you to circumvent those pesky ‘blocks and view or download anything you want to (not breaking the law whilst doing so obviously). Well worth investing the time to load a reliable VPN service in my humble opinion.
FightthepowerCSC
Yup Gambling adverts still here
:-((