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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Gordon Gekkos first dinging hotly a marquis one – Wigan reserve and more clubs than Jordan Spieth
And today 7 boys/men are making their FIFTEENTH court appearance over a period of TWENTY THREE months.
The reason?
They sang Roll of Honour inside a football stadium in 21st century Scotland.
Enjoy your night CQN,
HH
Simpson
Craig
Gemmell
Murdoch
McNeill
Clark
Johnstone
Wallace
Chalmers
Auld
Lennox
hail hail
Cannot understand the thinking of some who reckon Hooper and Aiden would be good. To me it lacks ambition and I think we should be going for the “hot young guys”. I mean it makes sense. Get a few years of service, then sell to get a few shillings for the club.
I’ve been watching the young guy at Schalke, Leroy Sane and reckon we could get him for a reasonable fee before his stock rises, but what do I know,eh?
Over and out
KINGLuBO
That awkward moment when the girl in car in front of you on the Kingston Bridge is busy taking selfies.
Hamiltontim, they are a crowd of charlatans. It mystifies me so few can see this.
From RM
Brazilian superstar Ronaldo has confirmed for the first time that he was made a golden offer to sign for Rangers.
Ronaldo – crowned the greatest player in the world – was almost lured to Scotland last summer in a multi-million pound deal.
But the man who will be gunning for Craig Brown’s national side in Paris in June opted to leave Barcelona for Inter Milan instead.
And, in an interview to be screened tonight on Scotsport Extra Time, the striker says: “Yes, it’s true, I received an offer from Glasgow Rangers and we looked at it and decided that the best offer at that time was from Inter Milan.
“I said my apologies to all the other interested parties and said Inter was my choice.”
The deal that would have shocked the football world was mastermined by chairman David Murray and Rangers kit-makers Nike.
The sportswear giants had planned to buy up a team of the world’s top stars and put them on lucrative contracts.
Part of the package meant that players `owned’ by Nike would be encouraged to sign for high profile clubs whose kits were also supplied by the American firm.
Rangers offered Ronaldo a two-year contract with a clause which would have allowed him to move on again after just 12 months.
But as Murray believed he was close to striking a deal, Nike’s plan was put on the back burner and Ronaldo opted for a pounds 20m transfer to the glamorous Serie A club.
Ronaldo, though, has not enjoyed a dream start to his career in Italy and his form was publicly criticised last week by Inter’s president Massimo Moratti.
That news was welcomed by Scots boss Brown who will attempt to snuff out Ronaldo’s threat in the World Cup opener in Paris.
Ronaldo said: “I don’t really know a lot about the Scottish football scene but I’m sure it’s much like the English game and without a doubt it’s going to be a tough game against them.
“Scotland has always been a tough side to beat. They’re not going to be any different in France.”
We tried to sign Vialli two years earlier, Jardel the year before. Van Nistelroy the year after, Van persie the year after that.
Eventually we got hit with Flo.
Scottish football has held us back since the 90’s.
How could we ,shame on us ;)
HH
Rob Kiernan has had more clubs than TBB
BSR
Mine are blades. His are all distinctly low profile.
Both daughters heading to the Fleetwood Mac concert and they’ve never heard of ole Peter Green?
TBB
The Battered Blades?
Just caught up with the blog from the last couple of days.
Yesterday it was all about food, ie bread jam etc. Today its wind,coincidence I think not.
Anyway am having toasted cheese for my supper tonight, my problem is I am running out of options for my bread, obviously Warburtons is off the menu now, as is Kingsmill, and dont get me started about (jetting in ) plain loafs. So what bread should I buy folks?
BSR – Oh well….
Certainly more socially acceptable than the Flashing Bunnet…
No offence ghuy’s but Rhodes?
No way, he can’t get in the Scotland them.
He isn’t rated by Blackburn fans and they reckon he is slow paced.
DBBIA
They can go their own way
KingLubo agree with you on that one, look forwards not backwards, however tempting it may be. Hail Hail Hebcelt
50 shades of Green – no brainer support your local baker/bakery,you know it makes sense. H H Hebcelt
Rhodes
Is that not part of Greece?
Sure Philbhoy has enough problems with his holiday without thinking about Rhodes
BSR- in the olden [ ie unrubbish] days my sister used to read ‘Jackie’ magazine, in which the Peter Green story appeared, as a strip cartoon.
Livi Bhoy
“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.”
Well, I recognise my own statement, even when it has some twisted scaffolding around it.
No, where do you depart from the reasoning?
In my view, it is objectively harder to reach the last 16 of CL and beyond than it is to LOSE (hate to break it to you, but we did not win in 2003) the Europa League or UEFA Cup.
I evidence this by the standard of the opposition you have to get by (Deportivo rather than Atletico Madrid, Stuttgart rather than Schalke or Dortmund, Liverpool or Blackburn rather than Arsenal or Man. City). The clubs that equalled our losing finalist status included Alaves, Middlesboro, Fulham and the deid club.
Sure, there is glory in winning a trophy but you would not accept that winning the Petrofac Cup is better than being 8th in the SPFL.
There is no question of being happy or content to be lower table EPL, or any other reconstituted better league. The question is of being above the glass ceiling that gives you a fighting chance of kicking on and improving. It gives you the same chance that Tottenham (with debts) and Southampton (with low crowds) are taking whilst others like QPR and Blackburn and Fulham and Leeds crashed and burned by taking their chance to compete at that heady level.
So save your cringe for where it is deserved. Our current position, as explained by Swiss Ramble blog, is about CL qualification(or a very good Europa run) and the sale of a superstar every few years and every promising player within 2 years of having them. That is cringeworthy for a club of our status, history and potential. As it is for Anderlecht and Legia and Sparta Prague and other proud historical clubs. To be allowed to compete, but only with a financial handicap, by remaining in a moribund league when the rules and surroundings have changed (Bosman, TV money etc;) to favour disproportionately the big leagues and their clubs, big or small.
It was never about getting into the EPL, per se.
It was about letting Europe’s proud historical clubs from small and middling leagues find a fitting place in this changed world, which they could then defend by sporting contest. This was about letting Benfica, Ajax, Shaktar, Legia, CSKA Moscow, Anderlecht and Austria Vienna, satisfy the longings of their long-suffering supporters to be given a fair chance of competing with their counterparts from Sattelite TV funded leagues.
I would love Celtic to take their chances in such a new league. If we remain careful with our finances (to avoid a Leeds or Rangers scenario) then so be it if we are low to middling in a tougher league. I have confidence in the fairytale of Celtic that we would struggle our way up through that adversity to better things.
But every year we remain in a setting where a gap grows between us and the Stokes. Sevilles, Palermos and Stuttgarts of this world is another year closer to becoming as relevant as Shamrock Rovers (no offence).
The Bosman ruling is 20 years old and satellite TV money distortion is only a little younger. We are still stuck in thinking the 60s and 70s are coming back sometime soon.
Philbhoy can manage, he is a veritable Colossus.
Ffs lost some of my post there.
HT,
Mate that is shocking, it goes without saying what I hope for here, but the stress the family’s and of course the individuals involved go through must be intolerable.
Keep fighting the fight mate, eventually hopefully the right result will win through for all involved.
UTLR
Tusk, Tusk… Rumours again
hebcelt
17:13 on 17 June, 2015
50 shades of Green – no brainer support your local baker/bakery,you know it makes sense. H H Hebcelt
**************
Cheers Heb but he’s a Paris bun :-)
CL Seeding for Monday’s draw.
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2015.html
We will be in Pot 4 for the main draw apparently ;-)
SFTB @ 17.15
Highly endorsable.
Got a lot of sympathy with Livibhoy’s view too. I don’t think the pair of you are really too far apart tbh.
50 shades of green all the more reason to use him – he kneads the dough!!! hat and coat and oot. H H Hebcelt
Por Cierto
Appreciate your serious comments, however I must take issue with you on the record of New Labour.
At the least it relieved us of nearly two decades of Toryness – wait till we see what they do, unfettered, over the next five years, so that achievement should not be underrated.
Tax Credits, the great achievement of Gordon Brown – the biggest redistribution of wealth to the poor EVER – The minimum wage – a breakthrough to stop rogue employers paying below poverty-line wages – The biggest schoolbuilding programme EVER – the largest ever increase in NHS funding – Paternity leave…etc etc
The SNP could have never done amy of this, and even if they had had the opportunity, they would not have done – helping the poorest and working class is, and never has been in their DNA.
Will one of their ‘converts’ give me ONE thing they have done for the needy – know why? – They have NEVER done anything.
Finally, I say to those of our kind and class, who voted against Labour by making up a load of rubbish and whose real motivation was to ‘stick it to the ‘Unionist Rangers’ – hang you head in shame, you sold out your brothers and sisters throughout the UK, delivered them into the hands of the Tories, and sent a one-issue SNP opposition to Westminster, who will only look after themselves and their independence tripe.
King Lubo and hebcelt
Schalke are a richer club than us and are more likely to steal our promising players than vice versa.
I don’t know where this idea came from that we can tempt good players from rich clubs. Over the years we have had suggestions that we should ask Michael Owen and others, on nothing more logical than, if you never ask, you’ll never know.
We are aware, roughly, about transfer fees, wage expectations and buy out clauses. We can tempt guys from 2nd division Germany but not from the top clubs (certainly not their first team squad).
There is a reason that we are shopping among youth players and unfashionable leagues and its the same reason we shop in Lidl rather than Fortnum n’ Masons.
Forget whatever transfermarket says. If this guy has a season like last year, he will be £15m plus rated
TBB 16.14
There is a very limited audience for Scottish football and a huge demand for top flight English football.
Unless the EPL ceased to exist and a new Euro league was created that we were invited in to ,then we will never have equal revenue streams to EPL teams.
Celtic have no control over the governing bodies.
They are however masters of their own ship.
We have shown no desire or creativity in pursuing such a route.
TT
Hebcelt, wait al phone you a taxi ::-)
I thought my psycho humour was bad, but yours RISES above mine.
H.H
Warburton says he’s confident Weiry Dave will help take Sevco in the right direction.
Mr Pastry says, “Finally, I say to those of our kind and class, who voted against Labour by making up a load of rubbish and whose real motivation was to ‘stick it to the ‘Unionist Rangers’ – hang you head in shame”.
ACGR says, piss off ya half baked walloper.
Targeting new players , I agree is difficult.
In general we tend to have a £2million 2.5million ceiling.
There is a need to be creative / imaginative , in our dealings…
We have proved it possible before.
Targeting the right type of young player, will reap rewards.
I remember when we went after Ki sung young, and stole a march on the top European clubs.
This was a young guy, just named Asia’s young player of the year, playing for local city team Seoul F.C
Those are the type of targets I’m talking about…. If you are named Asia”s young player of the year, that’s quite an accolade. You are unlikely to be a dud.
A 20 year old Van Dijk…another good example of targeting a sure fire winner.
SFTB still diamonds to be found Aldi voted supermarket of the year – beat Waitrose et al , can be done . More difficult, I admit but can be done. H H Hebcelt
Ole Paul67 speakin in Pirate me beauties.
Arrr CSC
Rob Kiernan has had more loans than Sevco.