Illegal sports streaming – accessing the inaccessible

when you hear about NFL players getting $45M a year then it doesnt make me feel the slightlest bit guilty for using a stream, same with PPV boxing. Allegedly Fury wants £100M for fighting Usyk, illegal stream for me.

I pay for Rangers TV and DAZN, £340 a year and to be honest i feel i get my monies worth from it.
 
Ataturk said:
If you want to watch Scottish football you have to subscribe to Sky, BT, and Premier. It’s ridiculous.

A monopoly would be a good thing for once.
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Usually competition is a good thing and eventually drives prices down however the fragmentation of the TV contracts has completely f*cked over the consumer.

I’m convinced that for some of the cup games in Scotland on the likes of Viaplay there will be greater numbers watching on illegal streams than there will be paying for the legit service.

The lack of access to 3pm kick offs really is so backward thinking. Live televised games for decades at all kind of times of day and days of the week have shown that in general they don’t negatively impact attendances.

Let those that can’t attend 3pm Saturday games in person access a legitimate way of viewing. I’ve no doubt an online-season ticket for Ibrox for UK based viewers would sell line hot cakes.
 
Everything for as little as £40 a year or £100 odd a month for the tv company’s packages. I know what I’d be choosing.

If you have broadband with certain companies, most will provide a box for like £5 a month extra which will contain all the basic channels which can be useful for taping stuff ect, but even then some of the newer alternative ‘services’ can tape, just a bit awkward to fart around with.

I do think the numbers of folk using these alternative services would be much lower if companies did not rip the arse out of pricing.

Anyway..

https://twitter.com/x/status/1009018459689283585
 
Things are going to get worse over the next couple of years, Amazon have bought the rights to first choice of Tuesday night European games, so you may need Prime or Prime Sports? (they will need to get their money back somehow) from 2024 onwards. WBD/BT have retained the rest of the UEFA games, however Warner Bros have the option to buy out BT so it may get more expensive to watch UEFA.

The best option I can see is for someone with deep pockets to take it on, Apple have just bought MLS (the whole shebang) TV coverage, potentially launching a world wide 'soccer' channel. If it takes off, then perhaps they look to fill it out with other leagues? One thing to remember about the Apple deal, they do not have to make money on the channel, only keep you on the iphone and family plan.

They buy up the smaller leagues and fill out their schedule, not that expensive to them, especially with everyone moving to remote production. (no more big production vehicles on site, with all the staff).

If they don't do it then Amazon/Google/Elon will, all that customer data they can pull is going to be too tempting.
 
Ataturk said:
If you want to watch Scottish football you have to subscribe to Sky, BT, and Premier. It’s ridiculous.

A monopoly would be a good thing for once.
Click to expand...
It's a joke, the desperation for sponsors means Viaplay get the rights. A semi competent marketing team in Scottish football could have prevented this by getting decent sponsors then selling rights to Sky (to keep costs down for 'customers')
 
How many Bears and Yahoos will be forced to illegaly stream the cup final because they don't want to pay for a subscription to a channel built around stupid Viking crime dramas?

It's beyond a joke.
 
BobbyShearer said:
The Spotify model is the way to combat illegal sport streaming.

Albeit we’d pretty much have to hand ownership of all rights over to one company.
Not necessarily looking a bad thing in todays “pay 6 companies a fee to watch 1 sport” world.
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It has gotten a lot worse since this post. But the thing that pisses me off now is all the supermarkets have put their prices up and only reduce them if you've got their shitty app. Needs 12 apps on your phone now just to buy food at a decent price.

Can't do anything now without needing an app for it cause they all want the data that comes with it.
 
BroomhouseBear said:
Usually competition is a good thing and eventually drives prices down however the fragmentation of the TV contracts has completely f*cked over the consumer.

I’m convinced that for some of the cup games in Scotland on the likes of Viaplay there will be greater numbers watching on illegal streams than there will be paying for the legit service.

The lack of access to 3pm kick offs really is so backward thinking. Live televised games for decades at all kind of times of day and days of the week have shown that in general they don’t negatively impact attendances.

Let those that can’t attend 3pm Saturday games in person access a legitimate way of viewing. I’ve no doubt an online-season ticket for Ibrox for UK based viewers would sell line hot cakes.
Click to expand...
If we aren’t playing at 3 on a Saturday I’m watching an epl game.
 
Ataturk said:
If you want to watch Scottish football you have to subscribe to Sky, BT, and Premier. It’s ridiculous.

A monopoly would be a good thing for once.
Click to expand...
But it is a monopoly already, since the content that each has is exclusive to them.
 
They seem to be cracking down on the firestick usage.
The Arsenal game on Wednesday I watched on my phone in my bed.
 
Big Vern said:
It's a joke, the desperation for sponsors means Viaplay get the rights. A semi competent marketing team in Scottish football could have prevented this by getting decent sponsors then selling rights to Sky (to keep costs down for 'customers')
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Viaplay lost 24 million last year and probably going out of business
 
TheHistorian said:
The hookey firestick market is maybe a monopoly too, if it includes all the main sports, entertainment and TV providers.

But they don’t seem to be making much of a dent into the big players profit margins at the moment so maybe there is no motivation yet for them to reduce their subscription costs.
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Supersonic55 said:
Anyone paying for all the available subscriptions has far too much money.
Sky, Virgin, bt are a shower of robbing bassas.
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At 1 point during Covid when i wasn't doing anything else I had Sky full package, BT sports, Prime, Netflix, Disney! Also had RTV through my season ticket and there was still games I had to find via alternative means. Premier and now Viaplay will never see a penny from me. That was my breaking point.

I have since ditched both Sky and BT which i have had for years. Now share all the streaming Apps between family and only pay for RTV.
 
My digital content bill is staggering and I’m going to do something about it this year. The main problem is that we (4 of us) all like different services. I’d list it all but frankly it would be embarrassing.

A poster before nailed it, take the piss and the result is pirates. Scottish football being a prime example, too many providers which ultimately costs a single user too much money each month.

I should say I don’t pay for Scottish football any more other than my season ticket ;)
 
They've got to be a little less naive than that surely? They know without a doubt people are going down this route due to the absolute obscene costs to do it the legal way. They get that, right?

I don't use illegal streams very often at all. Even when I do it's usually as a background thing and something I probably wouldn't bother about. However, I am finding less and less of a want to have things like Sky Sports, BT Sports, Viaplay etc.
 
Camdenbear said:
Things are going to get worse over the next couple of years, Amazon have bought the rights to first choice of Tuesday night European games, so you may need Prime or Prime Sports? (they will need to get their money back somehow) from 2024 onwards. WBD/BT have retained the rest of the UEFA games, however Warner Bros have the option to buy out BT so it may get more expensive to watch UEFA.

The best option I can see is for someone with deep pockets to take it on, Apple have just bought MLS (the whole shebang) TV coverage, potentially launching a world wide 'soccer' channel. If it takes off, then perhaps they look to fill it out with other leagues? One thing to remember about the Apple deal, they do not have to make money on the channel, only keep you on the iphone and family plan.

They buy up the smaller leagues and fill out their schedule, not that expensive to them, especially with everyone moving to remote production. (no more big production vehicles on site, with all the staff).

If they don't do it then Amazon/Google/Elon will, all that customer data they can pull is going to be too tempting.
Click to expand...
Would quite happily settle with amazon

Their coverage and picture quality is excellent. And with their tv and flawless delivery at least getting something else. Granted if they monopolised it rates would go up
 
govanite said:
Viaplay lost 24 million last year and probably going out of business
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Maybe in the UK but Europe-wide, partly through the addition of football streaming services, they added 890k users and increased year-on-year revenue by 77% in the last quarter of 2022 alone. They are a massive company.
 
strathavenbear said:
I'm of the opinion that if the legal steaming was at a fair price most people wouldn't resort to illegal streams.
To watch the EPL in the UK you need subscriptions for Sky, BT and Amazon and that doesn't get you the 3pm Saturday games.
Stay overseas and you can get every game with one normally cheaper subscription.
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problem is people have (imo) a warped idea of a fair price.

I ended up subscribing to Viaplay for the cup games, as I realised there was no point in arsing around with illegal streams when I could just get it without the hassle.

£15 for the month, got a couple of Rangers games out of that.

Even if it was just the one game, I'm not sure why that is seen as too expensive. I agree that it would be much better if it was all in the one place. But a comparison is that a pint is £5 odd these days - do folk fuss about having a few pints going to a game?
 
Alvor said:
I suspect the figures are a bit imaginary, I just can’t see 2 million people taking part in a survey about tv and then admitted that they broke the law.

“According to a survey from Finder, at least 5.8 million Brits watched content illegally in 2020, of which almost 2 million people admitted to using an illegal stream to watch a Premier League match.”
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The most staggering figure is their claim 70% watch sport legally! I know few , if any, that watch legally except when in pub and even they are looking for ways around paying the exorbitant fees
 
No.8MK2 said:
The most staggering figure is their claim 70% watch sport legally! I know few , if any, that watch legally except when in pub and even they are looking for ways around paying the exorbitant fees
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Absolutely no chance will 70% of our fans be watching legally today anyway. Be lucky if it's 7%. Genuinely.
 
govanite said:
Viaplay lost 24 million last year and probably going out of business
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www.viaplaygroup.com

Q4 2022 interim report January-December

Q4 2022 interim report January-December
www.viaplaygroup.com www.viaplaygroup.com

They lost a lot of SEK in Q4, 2022 but that was probably down to the purchase of Premier to enter the UK market.

The made over 600m SEK the year before

They are launching in thr US and Canada this year.

They believe their financials are good. They are reporting strong increases in subscribers.

On what do you base your statement that they are probably going out of business soon?
 
Out of all my mates and family members. I count around 5 that watch it legally. The rest around 20 people don't.
 
the_ref said:
problem is people have (imo) a warped idea of a fair price.

I ended up subscribing to Viaplay for the cup games, as I realised there was no point in arsing around with illegal streams when I could just get it without the hassle.

£15 for the month, got a couple of Rangers games out of that.

Even if it was just the one game, I'm not sure why that is seen as too expensive. I agree that it would be much better if it was all in the one place. But a comparison is that a pint is £5 odd these days - do folk fuss about having a few pints going to a game?
Click to expand...

I agree for a one off, but if you can't make our games and want to watch without a VPN you'll need a 3 subscriptions that will cost you not far off £100 a month. My old dear is daft enough to pay that. I'm sure some months it'll work out about £50 a game.
 
The Clubs should have full streaming rights with subs and PPV's. If Sky or whoever wanted the Old Firm games they could pay per game directly to the clubs. The current model is an absolute nonsense.
 
Must be the only one in my friends group that actually pays all the individual subscriptions. Not Premier Sports though or whatever it’s called now. Have to draw the line somewhere.
 
I have full package for sky.

I renewed November last year for 18 months for £81 after I phoned them as they were going to charge £120 or thereabouts.

I apparently got this deal as I am a vip as I have been with them over 24 years.

I also have Prime and Disney so roughly £100 a month.

My wife and family were convinced my job was going to give me a heart attack so I left last year and accessed my pension at 55.

So that is my limit.

Four of my neighbours all use a modified fire stick at £50 a year and three have sky but do not have the sports package.

One has the full sky package, BT, premier and something else and was paying £9.99 a game for Rangers but for some reason it stopped working.

He said he kept everything as the fire stick didn’t always work.

He is about £180 a month but he says watching any football apart from them is his hobby.

I am in the minority as the majority of people I know have a firestck.

I will always have Prime, Disney (for granddaughters) and sky especially now with Discovery and Paramount but if the sports package goes up then I will ditch the sports.
 
Souness86 said:
Absolutely no chance will 70% of our fans be watching legally today anyway. Be lucky if it's 7%. Genuinely.
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I don't even know how 7% can watch legally?

I can see no option but illegal stream today unless you are at the game in the UK?

Watching through RTV with a VPN is still illegal which is utterly ridiculous. The club knows its a grey area and is exactly why we are partnered with Nord.

Still, there will be a lot of people out there that don't have access to firestick etc.
 
GF1 said:
I don't even know how 7% can watch legally?

I can see no option but illegal stream today unless you are at the game in the UK?

Watching through RTV with a VPN is still illegal which is utterly ridiculous. The club knows its a grey area and is exactly why we are partnered with Nord.

Still, there will be a lot of people out there that don't have access to firestick etc.
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There are arguments against watching streams on the cheap using ‘dodgy’ Firesticks. However, whilst watching RangersTV, from the Club’s official sources, in your home, with a VPN may be against the Ts & Cs it isn’t illegal. Has anyone doing so for personal use ever been convicted, and of what?

Its similar to watching USA Netflix with a VPN - against the Ts & Cs but not illegal:

www.tomsguide.com

Are Netflix VPNs legal?

Is it legal to watch geo-blocked Netflix content with a VPN?
www.tomsguide.com www.tomsguide.com

While using a VPN to unblock content may be against Netflix's T&Cs, the risk is minimal – as we said above, the streaming site is probably more happy to let this slide than lose a paying customer.

Beyond that, there are absolutely no laws restricting you from accessing content that's hosted on Netflix but is unavailable in your current location. It's not piracy, you're still supporting the filmmakers, and you're saving money in the process. In every way, it's a better option than breaking the law and downloading a copyright-infringing version elsewhere – and most importantly, it doesn't put you at any risk.
 
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I have sky sports bt sport and viaplay and still only get about a 3rd of our games on TV, any I can legally purchase on RTV I do. I do go on holiday to watch some of our other games on RTV tho. I'd happily pay 100 a month to see all our games as I can't get to as many games as I use to. Most of my TV subscriptions are solely to watch our games. With the exception of prime.
 
Vony Tidmar said:
I have sky sports bt sport and viaplay and still only get about a 3rd of our games on TV, any I can legally purchase on RTV I do. I do go on holiday to watch some of our other games on RTV tho. I'd happily pay 100 a month to see all our games as I can't get to as many games as I use to. Most of my TV subscriptions are solely to watch our games. With the exception of prime.
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You’d save a lot of money with a RangersTV Unlimited subscription (£240 a year) and a long-term subscription to any reputable VPN provider. Ditch the Sky, BT and Viaplay.

Of course there is the ‘inconvenience‘ of having to stream but it gets you all our domestic matches. For Euro games I share my mate’s Sky login and watch BTSport via his SkyGo. Saves me a fortune.
 
Who remembers the days of 2006 or around then when Setanta could be hacked on freeview boxes

getting codes messaged to you on old board going in and it unscrambling haha
 
Valley Bluenose said:
You’d save a lot of money with a RangersTV Unlimited subscription (£240 a year) and a long-term subscription to any reputable VPN provider. Ditch the Sky, BT and Viaplay.

Of course there is the ‘inconvenience‘ of having to stream but it gets you all our domestic matches. For Euro games I share my mate’s Sky login and watch BTSport via his SkyGo. Saves me a fortune.
Click to expand...
Yeah my contract is up November this year I think this is what I'll do going forward.
 
Valley Bluenose said:
You’d save a lot of money with a RangersTV Unlimited subscription (£240 a year) and a long-term subscription to any reputable VPN provider. Ditch the Sky, BT and Viaplay.

Of course there is the ‘inconvenience‘ of having to stream but it gets you all our domestic matches. For Euro games I share my mate’s Sky login and watch BTSport via his SkyGo. Saves me a fortune.
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While this is true, you only save cash if you are only interested in watching Rangers.

If you want to watch the EPL, like loads do, then you need a Sky Sports subscription, plus BT, plus Amazon if you want full coverage.

So it’s easy to see why so many love their firestick.
 
It's totally bonkers, but some people will pay £100 a month for TV content.

How much you pay for all Scottish football on one platform?

£20 a month seems more than reasonable.

How many would pay that? Perhaps 200,000? About 4 million per month.
 
Ubik said:
when you hear about NFL players getting $45M a year then it doesnt make me feel the slightlest bit guilty for using a stream, same with PPV boxing. Allegedly Fury wants £100M for fighting Usyk, illegal stream for me.

I pay for Rangers TV and DAZN, £340 a year and to be honest i feel i get my monies worth from it.
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What’s the stream quality like on DAZN as they have now got the NFL GP ?
 
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