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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Flaky choux
TT
We’re somewhat at crossed purposes I think.
To be clear, the value of EPL rights is artificially inflated by the competition between BT and Sky, and some others, for content that drives (or maintains) subscriptions. If that content is freely available via other channels, the value of the rights diminishes accordingly.
Technology enabled rights piracy will have an impact on football broadcasting. Whether it has the same level of impact that it has had on music for example remains to be seen, but it will have a significant impact nevertheless.
In terms of league competitions, there aren’t to many models to chose from. Ultimately, viewing is a function of population size and rights values are a function of population size and wealth. Modelling a new league structure on those bases is valid, and has been done. It’s simply never been implemented.
Celtic cannot change the landscape in isolation, and Scottish football in isolation cannot change the population parameter. It needs a consensus approach, bringing together those clubs and nations which are currently excluded, to create a product and a distribution channel within a market that rights purchasers cannot marginalise.
It’s Atlantic League 2 for me.
2 eggs short of a jus-rol.
FannyCraddock csc
Talk of a EL run compared to a CL last 16
Prefer EL run (obviously preferably through a 3rd place CL group stage) – look at the coefficients of Basel and Benfica who have enjoyed lengthy EL runs in the past. Plus more excitement I feel – rather beating a few teams in knockout stages then losing 5-0 to a Juve. Just my opinion though.
HH
Conference over! No more forced smalltalk with serial networkers and crushing bores, plus I get my CQN back!
Hebcelt, I still buy lots of my session drams from both aldi and liddle. I think philbhoy has to take the credit for recommending one or both to me.
They’re also pretty handy if you want as saddle or a specialist knife for gutting rare Amazonian fish species.
The assistant to Warbutton…..
just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in….
Oops…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjlTZCeF2EU
If anyone is around Drogheda tomorrow, at 1pm there is a talk by Brendan Woods, who has worked in Fremantle Gaol, Western Australia.
The subject of the talk is John Boyle O’Reilly.
Irishman, John Boyle O’Reilly was imprisoned there and escaped to the US.
He went on to have a highly influential career in America.
The following is a quote from Brendan.
“This was the most successful prison break in Australian history. It was an international rescue that took years to organise, and which finally freed six Irish prisoners.”
The meeting is at 1pm in the Tholsel, West Street, Drogheda.
Not expecting many to come…but if you don’t ask.
dublin2016@mail.com
Clogher
Good evening friends.
CL v Europa.
Can you remember without the Google switch thing, where the last 3 finals for each tourney took place? ???????.
Me either, only the CL ones and I struggled with the europa this year for nearly 2secs, then I remembered MR Z and Poland.
Having said all that I don’t know even know where the petrofart cup final was played (or who won it).
And I watched it on the box (not one of they cheat ones ya misrable shower ).:-)
50 shades of green
Cl:
BERLIN
LISBON
LONDON?
Ffs yer awe away googling ain’t ye :-)
Bawsman wrote
“The western governments knew Saddam Hussain had some really horrible, nasty, deadly stuff to lob (halabja) ’cause we (western suppliers) had the receipts”
Except we didn’t find any. The belief that Saddam had WMD that could target Israel etc will surely go down in history as the worst example of assessing anyone’s capability to strike fear into the enemy.
Unless Torre Andre Flo is brought up in the conversation, of course!
I binned sky a while back. Don’t miss it one bit.
Got BT TV as I have their broadband so get sports ‘free’. It’s ok. But I’d rather SFA, SPFL, Celtic just ditched it and developed their own platform.
This spfl is like a ole albatross round our necks
davidopoulos
Nae point in asking me I dont know? ??
Leicester City have sacked players James Pearson, Tom Hopper and Adam Smith for ill-dicipline during clubs end-of-season tour to Thailand.
I assume this means these players were of no potential transfer value.
patrick27…
Due to the qualification of the Europa league and other games being shifted to an early kick off on Sunday’s, I’ve had no other option than not renewing my season ticket, five games on a Saturday for £515 is not viable.
My kids will get their cards for the games…I will pay as you go.
Celtic, put the fans first, there is so many that would return if it was 3.00 Saturday football.
We get buttons from the tv stations, the revenue lost must outweigh the peanuts?
So anyway thought I would make a comment on Pauls leader.
Once again we are chasing the manky mob with missing links.
They have had “missing links ” amongst their team (sic ) and fans for all of their lives (plural was ment ).
Monkey F off. :-)
The ole CL draw is on Monday 22/06/15.
ACGR greetings my much travelled friend, be sure and take advantage of the culinary delights of Cambodia,followed Rick Stein’s programme and was well impressed with the “street food”. Looking forward to meet and greet in the new season,take care and watch out for tapeworm!!!! Hail Hail Hebcelt
See the Huns have had a bid accepted for a Wigan player, can imagine how the conversation with warburton and dodgie Dave went…
MW- we can get this guy for £x
DD- great, you pay it and keep the receipt mate and I’ll square you up next month. (Phone down)
MW- eh Dave are you still there ???
Thanks to all who responded re these new- fangled Android machines. Very interesting but I don’t think they are for me hem-hem :-)
So the Huns are maybe signing some lad from down South as the first signing for the baker…! And the Tic big VVD is basically wanting away so the Championship club take the headlines again with spin on the agenda.
Ayrshire is Green and White
Does Zaluska’s exit mean we are looking for a keeper?
Just seen the guys wiki page, he’s been in more clubs than Peter stringfellow.
He’s no Virgil van dijk that’s for sure
Off to my scratcher before a very early flight to Siem Reap and a trip to one of the most amazing places on earth. Its been an incredible past three days here, if not a little bit emotional and disturbing. Visited the Tuol Sleng prison yesterday and cried when the full horror of the kaymer rouge cruelty against their countrymen and families was laid bare in blood stained prison cells and meeting one of the very few who survived. Today was equally as harrowing, seeing the mass graves, remains, clothing and assembled skeletal remains of 9000 genocide victims in a space no bigger than a football pitch affected me the way I had hoped it would.
I guess I’m just a big softy, but I cried like a baby. I hope miss acgr plays her part in putting these monsters behind bars for what remains of the rest of their lives.
A truly disturbing and upsetting experience.
No more death for me, the rest of my holiday will be loving my family, riding an elephant (steady sipsini), catching something big on the Mekong and romancing Mrs acgr.
Hail Hail Celtic men and wummin
Gary Hooper has a unique record as the only, player to have scored in the Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two, FA Cup, League Cup, Football League Trophy, FA Trophy, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Premier League.
He also holds the unique record of being the last ever Celtic player to score against Rangers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33148799#
Thems first signing
HH
micktt…
The zombie overdrive is about to hit Mach 10…..
https://zombiesrungame.com/
bournesouprecipe
The Bhoy scores goals wherever he goes:))
Paul67
Apologies I went aff oot after posting. I’ve always had a notion that ‘charlatans’ had an almost romantic, rural England, Emily Bronte type of mystique about them. This lot are just scruffilous hillbillies.
50 shades of green
I think 5 of the 7 will lose their jobs if found guilty. That’s how serious and devastating this legislation is.
ACGR
A very poignant post M, take care and God Bless.
SPFL transfer news: Celtic target Spaniard, Rangers looking to sign Northern Ireland international
Spot the deliberate mistake in the News Now portal
starry
Bring him home?
weet weet
Does “issues” with Birmingham medical mean he failed it.