[Lion-o]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...deals-websites

Premier League TV model at risk as websites threaten lucrative deals



It is the negative flipside of all that cringeworthy marketing speak about "expanding the footprint" and "leveraging the global brand". When Chelsea kick off the Premier League season against Hull City on Saturday, they will be watched not just by thousands in the stadium and millions more who have paid to watch live on TV, but by up to 1.5m viewers around the world tuning in for nothing via their PCs.
Collectively they could one day threaten the entire business model of the Premier League, one that has driven its growth over the past 17 years, and they are the reason why it is fighting furiously behind the scenes at home and abroad to seize back the initiative.

[Lion-o]

My thoughts are that TV as we know it is on borrowed time, there is no way they can ever stop streaming so eventually Pay TV will die.

Either all games will be live on free platforms, or they will ration games and only make the big games live. It will be an interesting few years ahead of us.

[saabrian]

I'm not quite sure I get it. TV rights are based on advertising which are based on ratings which are based on how many eyeballs are watching the show and its commercials. So doesn't live stream EXPAND the audience and INCREASE the number of eyeballs watching?

[ghost101]

Well as far as the EPL is concerned, domestic TV rights deals just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Streaming is never going to compete with the high definition coverage provided by Sky Sports and now ESPN in the UK.

Perhaps international TV rights will get damaged. But they are still small compared to domestic money involved.

What may be hurt is future growth of the internationalisation of the premier league because sky sports might find it harder to resell coverage abroad to the likes of ESPN and Star Sports in Asia, as incomes there grow.

[blackhornet]

I will say that on this weekend alone it seems the streamers are at the top of their game. iraqgoals.net is back (perhaps under new ownership lol) and had long menu of choices. They had the Arsenal game, as well as several French League games (watched Arsenal target Chamakh and Charlie Davies each score braces in Sochaux vs Bordeaux) and now have Polish and Turkish league games on.

we'll see how long it lasts

[Lion-o]

Originally Posted by saabrian

I'm not quite sure I get it. TV rights are based on advertising which are based on ratings which are based on how many eyeballs are watching the show and its commercials. So doesn't live stream EXPAND the audience and INCREASE the number of eyeballs watching?

That's where your wrong, in Europe (England especially) TV rights are sold to pay TV companies (Sky, ESPN) who make their money on subscriptions as well as advertising. The reason why setanta went bust in England is because they didn't get enough subscriptions.

and the point is adverts are aimed at a specific demographic what good is an advert aimed at Chinese people advertising a chinese product, in chinese to people in England or Germany?

So basically a live stream CONTRACTS their audience and DECREASES the number of people paying to watch the games.

Originally Posted by ghost101

Well as far as the EPL is concerned, domestic TV rights deals just keep getting bigger and bigger.

The point is they have got bigger and bigger, but they will top out soon. There is only so much you can sell and streaming is going to start to eat into their revenue.

Streaming is never going to compete with the high definition coverage provided by Sky Sports and now ESPN in the UK.

That's not the aim of it. It's to provide people who don't care about the quality but do care about price with a free way to watch their team. And you completely forget that people are streaming the non televised 3pm games.


And the facts are the quality is far better now then when i first watched, HD is neglible to most people especially as many people haven't experienced it.

Perhaps international TV rights will get damaged. But they are still small compared to domestic money involved.

That's funny because the premier league are worried about it hurting domestic TV rights, as their target is people in the UK streaming.

What may be hurt is future growth of the internationalisation of the premier league because sky sports might find it harder to resell coverage abroad to the likes of ESPN and Star Sports in Asia, as incomes there grow.

Sky sports don't sell it, the premier league sells it direct via an international feed.

Originally Posted by blackhornet

I will say that on this weekend alone it seems the streamers are at the top of their game. iraqgoals.net is back (perhaps under new ownership lol) and had long menu of choices. They had the Arsenal game, as well as several French League games (watched Arsenal target Chamakh and Charlie Davies each score braces in Sochaux vs Bordeaux) and now have Polish and Turkish league games on.

we'll see how long it lasts

Exactly it's something that can't be stopped, it's no different to the way the music industry ignored P2p file sharing and the way the movie industry can't stop people downloading their films.

It will always be one step ahead, and as more and more people turn to it, as the quality gets better, the amount TV companies are willing to pay and can pay will be decreased.

I know 100s of people who stream, not just sport, but TV. It's the future and even the guardian can see it.

People are underestimating this... it's a shame...

[saabrian]

Thanks for the clarification.

[blackhornet]

Originally Posted by Lion-o

I know 100s of people who stream, not just sport, but TV. It's the future and even the guardian can see it.

People are underestimating this... it's a shame...

yeah - I streamed the BGT finals where Susan Boyle lost - mainly because it wasn't on in America, but also because it was cool to be able to do so - and live. And I don't even watch American talent shows!

[Cirdan]

I doubt this will happen on short term. Stream quality of non-official streams is usually awfull, even high quality "official" streams can't compete with tv. Of course a lot of people use it anyway, but I doubt many of them would buy a subscription if streaming was not available.

But when you get streams with little loss of quality and few lags, pay-tv will die a slow death.

[Big Soccer Member]

F*ck, I had a really long, detailed post for this thread. I was 95% done with it then i had one of those momentarily, unexplainable computer problems. So I guess I'll answer short hand. No it won't.