Will Justin.tv Destroy Sports TV Rights Deals?
from the learn-to-serve-the-demand dept
Last month, Mike wrote about how the English Premier League was making threatening overtones towards Justin.tv, after it discovered some users on the site were streaming broadcasts of its soccer matches. It's the usual stuff from sports leagues, complaining that the sites aren't doing enough to stop piracy, and that their safe harbor shouldn't protect them, and that the DMCA takedown process isn't good enough. Now, a piece in The Guardian wonders if the large-scale piracy, along with a spending slowdown, will hit the value of TV rights deals when they come up for renewal, with broadcasters unable to justify the same level of spending should viewer figures fall.This scenario isn't hard to imagine, but should it occur, it will be thanks to a lack of business acumen, not piracy. These sites exist, and thrive, because they serve demand untapped by the Premier League and its rightsholders. For instance, the rights situation means that in England -- where the league's based and its games played -- fewer games are broadcast on TV than in many places in the world. Here in the US, nearly every match is broadcast each weekend; just a handful make it onto UK TV screens. British pub owners tried to serve the untapped demand for this by buying satellite systems from foreign countries, but the EPL shut that avenue off in the courts. Likewise, users in the UK and elsewhere turn to sites like Justin.tv because they don't have other options. The match they want to see isn't available on television, or they're not near a TV set when the match is being played. I'd argue this drives use of the services much more than a desire for free content does.
The rights situation domestically in the UK is the way it is because of the long-held view that putting games on TV will hold down attendance; but the small stadium sizes and increasingly geographically distributed fan bases (along with high ticket prices) do this already. And indeed, the experience of other sports leagues around the world would indicate that giving fans the ability to watch their teams' games on television does little, on its own, to hurt attendance. That sort of view seems to color the entire TV rights situation for the Premier League: it tries to manufacture some sort of scarcity in an attempt to increase its revenues. But the popularity of sites that make broadcasts available online makes it clear they'd be better off answering this demand with services of their own.
Here's a novel idea: instead of trying to crack down on the likes of Justin.tv, why not require rightsholders to offer free streams of games as parts of their deals? Then, the Premier League and its broadcast partners get to serve this demand, instead of Justin.tv or Chinese P2P services, and get to capitalize on it through advertising or other means. It might have some effect on pay services by giving fans with the least willingness to pay a free service to use, but again, I'd argue that most people would still prefer to watch their teams' games on a bigger screen and in higher quality enough to pay for it. And the additional fans the services would reach could make new converts to paid services as well. Whatever the EPL decides to do, it's impossible to understand how it thinks it can benefit by alienating fans and making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to follow their teams.
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Filed Under: rights deals, sports
Companies: justin.tv, premier league
Reader Comments
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Justin.TV rocks, but the viewership/channel is low
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cont'd
Btw, the less than sign messes up comments. :(
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It's about the experience...
As such, for me their is little to no value in going to the stadium for the live event. If it wasn't available on TV, I frankly just wouldn't be that big of a fan and ultimately less fans equals less money for the team.
Freedom
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There's more to this than just the Premier League
There's a belief that the Premier League is smothering the rest of English soccer, so the FA is trying to make sure there's still a support base for Leyton Orient, Oldham Athletic and other smaller clubs that fight for their place in the Football League with less money and a smaller support base.
It's a different scenario from closed-shop American sports leagues, since clubs can be promoted to and relegated from all the leagues on the table. (We can't relegate the Kansas City Royals to AAA ball, much as some of us would like to.) Theoretically, any club currently in League Two, England's fourth division, can climb the ladder and reach the Premier League. So in a way, the FA is trying to make sure that's still possible. The methods they use to ensure this can be argued for weeks, of course.
That said, I see no reason why the Premier League isn't offering live streams of matches outside of Europe. The Australian Football League already does this through AussieSports.tv. The FA could do this with lower league clubs as well.
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I'd pay for it, but I can't even do that
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Re: I'd pay for it, but I can't even do that
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The FA have a definite right to go after people 'broadcasting' games on the internet. I'm pretty sure that the clubs themselves own the internet rights. A lot of clubs have the option to subscribe or view games or highlights on their own web sites.
And the 'untapped demand' argument is drivel. Just because someone demands something you give it them? Carlos is an expert? I think not.
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No subject
It appears you've not heard of the NFL channel.
I substituted EPL with NFL. Amazing how the article reads identically to issues in this country (and just why in the hell do we care what's going on in the UK?).
Your solution only puts a bandaid on the problem, but doesn't take any steps to resolve the real issue here in that both the EPL and NFL think they own the rights to the plays of the game, when in fact they only own the rules to the game.
Until sports businesses realize this, consumers will continue to suffer.
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fan no more
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Because after already paying a monthly charge for setanta broadband, it turns out I have to spend more for champions league games. So then I went to the local pub (bar) and they didn't have it. So I went home and watched it online.
These rich companies want their cake, and want to eat it too. It's not enough that I pay my monthly fee....I gotta pay extra for 'good games'???? What is that?? Why do sports bars have to pay extra - extra - extra for oddball sports (at least oddball in US)?
I just wanted to watch the game.
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i think it's just a beginning, that's a new way to watch tv
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OMG
http://www.tvtower.info
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OMFG
Thank you TVTOWER for saving us from the almighty farkups at network TV
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English Premier League
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Destroy Sports
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