Football’s Premier League struggles against internet pirates
The BBC is reporting today on internet football piracy, claiming that more than a million people watch English Premier League matches via illegal internet streams. I wrote a feature on these illegal streams, and the practice of illegal broadcasts in pubs, for FourFourTwo magazine back in September 2006. You can read the feature here (PDF). The fact that it’s still a problem some two and a half years later suggests that the Premier League are struggling to contain it.
How the practice works is that the streamer tunes in to a live football broadcast, perhaps from Sky or Setanta in the UK or – more often for games not being screened live in the UK – from a foreign broadcaster, and streams the broadcast via the internet. Viewers can then watch the game on their own PCs using streaming software or directly via their web browsers. Dedicated sites list upcoming fixtures and post links to streams. The BBC report suggests that most viewers don’t know that this practice is illegal.
It’s debatable whether viewers watching the streams are breaking the law, but the seeders who broadcast them could face prosecution. Certainly, the Premier League are targeting the streamers and not the viewers.
It is illegal to broadcast Premier League matches in England or Scotland during a ‘closed period’ from 3pm until 5.15pm on a Saturday afternoon. Sky and Setanta never cover these games, but many foreign broadcasters do. So an English or Scottish pub showing a foreign football broadcast at 3pm on a Saturday is breaking the law. Regulations outside of England and Scotland seem less clear, and when the world wide web is added to the equation the technicalities of the problem become very difficult.
It’s worth pointing out that not all internet football streams are illegal. Sky and Setanta both stream live Premier League football on the web to subscribers. Interestingly, French broadcaster Canal+ has recently streamed live FA Cup football via its website, available without subscription to viewers in the UK, although the broadcaster’s Premier League footage cannot be viewed in the UK.
All interesting stuff, although ahead of next season as a Newcastle United supporter perhaps I should be investigating the legalities of watching Championship football…
