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Premier League's goal to close down net pirates
22 Sep 2009 | 07.09 Europe/London
Football is big business, with domestic rights alone to broadcasting Premier League matches worth around £1 billion per year. Illegal Internet coverage is seen as a threat that could undermine that bonanza - and representatives of England's top division are working to make sure that, when football's coming to your home, it doesn't do so in the wrong way.
The Premier League says it acted against 1,800 instances of illegal streaming during last season alone - and that it was successful in dealing with them ninety per cent of the time. The task of protecting its intellectual property has been outsourced to a company cleverly called NetResult, which has the role of policing illegal streams and shutting down offending websites. The League is also one of the many entertainment brands - including, of course, music and film companies - engaged in legal proceedings against Google's adopted video site, YouTube.
"If you don't allow someone to watch [games] from an official source, then the pirates do it for you," says Simon Denyer, chief executive of Perform - a firm that makes legit soccer highlights packages; its clients include major newspaper websites. "The biggest problem is the 3pm Premier League kick-offs," he told the Observer, referring to those matches that Premier League rules mean can't be broadcast live in the UK - but can be aired live by foreign outlets. However, the sheer number of places broadcasting Premier matches could cause a problem when it comes to clamping down on illegal coverage: the League currently has 81 deals in place that cover 211 territories, currently worth in total over £600 million pounds - and that figure's expected to rise.
An alleged major offender when it comes to illicit sports broadcasting is a website registered in the Netherlands: MyP2P.eu. In true Ronseal fashion, it does exactly what it says on the tin, utilising peer-to-peer technology to stream televisual coverage of events. Reports suggest it's hosted everything from one-day cricket internationals to Formula One races, as well as football; the next match it'll webcast will be on Wednesday night: Manchester United against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carling Cup. In Mr. Denyer's eyes, such streams wouldn't be be able to compete with any legitimate coverage, thanks to them being "very low quality, with strange commentary and graphics."
It's been recognised that it's the rise of broadband that's inflating the problem of illegally streamed football, along with increasing speeds. Going by Ofcom's most recent statistics, sixty-five per cent of UK homes have broadband - and that's been seen as an opportunity for pirates to deliver matches illegally that meet a demand that blocked off to media firms on the straight and narrow. While it's unlikely the issue will reach the same level of media coverage as that of film and music piracy, it'd help if multi-millionaire footballers started following in the footsteps of multi-millionaire singers who Bluntly come out against pirates. Only then can the non-multi-millionaire public truly empathise.
The Premier League says it acted against 1,800 instances of illegal streaming during last season alone - and that it was successful in dealing with them ninety per cent of the time. The task of protecting its intellectual property has been outsourced to a company cleverly called NetResult, which has the role of policing illegal streams and shutting down offending websites. The League is also one of the many entertainment brands - including, of course, music and film companies - engaged in legal proceedings against Google's adopted video site, YouTube.
"If you don't allow someone to watch [games] from an official source, then the pirates do it for you," says Simon Denyer, chief executive of Perform - a firm that makes legit soccer highlights packages; its clients include major newspaper websites. "The biggest problem is the 3pm Premier League kick-offs," he told the Observer, referring to those matches that Premier League rules mean can't be broadcast live in the UK - but can be aired live by foreign outlets. However, the sheer number of places broadcasting Premier matches could cause a problem when it comes to clamping down on illegal coverage: the League currently has 81 deals in place that cover 211 territories, currently worth in total over £600 million pounds - and that figure's expected to rise.
An alleged major offender when it comes to illicit sports broadcasting is a website registered in the Netherlands: MyP2P.eu. In true Ronseal fashion, it does exactly what it says on the tin, utilising peer-to-peer technology to stream televisual coverage of events. Reports suggest it's hosted everything from one-day cricket internationals to Formula One races, as well as football; the next match it'll webcast will be on Wednesday night: Manchester United against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carling Cup. In Mr. Denyer's eyes, such streams wouldn't be be able to compete with any legitimate coverage, thanks to them being "very low quality, with strange commentary and graphics."
It's been recognised that it's the rise of broadband that's inflating the problem of illegally streamed football, along with increasing speeds. Going by Ofcom's most recent statistics, sixty-five per cent of UK homes have broadband - and that's been seen as an opportunity for pirates to deliver matches illegally that meet a demand that blocked off to media firms on the straight and narrow. While it's unlikely the issue will reach the same level of media coverage as that of film and music piracy, it'd help if multi-millionaire footballers started following in the footsteps of multi-millionaire singers who Bluntly come out against pirates. Only then can the non-multi-millionaire public truly empathise.