Internet Football Streams (eg Firstrow) to be Blocked

June 21, 201313 yr

Premier League - Moves made to block illegal internet streams

The Premier League are trying to get internet service providers to block a website that illegally streams their matches.

According to a report by the BBC, the league are seeking a court order that blocks the Swedish run FirstRow1.eu being accessible in the UK.

The report also claims that none of the ISPs will challenge the court order if it is issued.

"If successful, the action will be the first non-music-related site block in the UK," the BBC report reveals.

"The Premier League's move follows a precedent set by the BPI music industry body, which has been successful in having several piracy websites blocked in the UK, most notably the Pirate Bay.

"In those cases, ISPs have stood firm and insisted they would only take action if ordered to do so by the courts."

The ISPs have all received letters from the Premier League but they have stated they will only block the site if ordered to do so by the courts.

The Premier League's aggressive stance comes as they look to protect their television revenue which has reached record levels.

Manchester United earned a record Â£60.8 million in Premier League TV money after winning the title - but even the club that finishes bottom next season will exceed that income due to the top flight's huge new broadcasting deals.

The Premier League has agreed deals that will see a total of around Â£5.5 billion in broadcasting rights for the 2013-16 period - some Â£2 billion more than the current deals.

The league champions next season can expect to earn close to Â£100 million in broadcast earnings while the bottom club, which this season was QPR, can expect their earnings to go up from Â£39.8 million to around Â£63million - more than United earned from the most recent campaign.

The Premier League distributes its TV money in a way that sees half of the total cash from the domestic deals divided equally between the member clubs, and all of the overseas broadcasting income also split equally.

A further 25 per of domestic TV income is split as merit money depending where each club finishes in the final league table, and the final 25 per cent paid in 'facility fees' for each time a club's matches are shown on television in the UK.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/premier-league-moves-made-block-illegal-internet-streams-194652267.html

June 21, 201313 yr

Author

They're only mentioning First Row Sports at the moment, though I'm sure more will follow eventually.

Edit: If this is posted in the wrong place, feel free to move it, Mods.

Edited June 21, 201313 yr by Amputechture

June 21, 201313 yr

If only they would suggest an alternative, I'd gladly pay for it.

June 21, 201313 yr

Hopefully vipbox.tv will still be going.

June 21, 201313 yr

If they offered a service like NHL Gamecenter Live I would be more than willing to pay for it, but the fact is, it is impossible to watch 3pm games in this country.

June 21, 201313 yr

EVen if they block it, proxies will still be able to access them.

June 21, 201313 yr

Just got rid of my Sky subscription cause I can't afford it anymore so was planning on streaming all our games.... So much for that idea.

June 21, 201313 yr

Whatever they do to block internet streaming it will always be circumnavigated by people.

June 21, 201313 yr

Just got rid of my Sky subscription cause I can't afford it anymore so was planning on streaming all our games.... So much for that idea.

Sky down here (separate outfit to the UK company) have just lost the rights to the Premier League for the forthcoming season, so I'm having to sign up with the new provider who only broadcast online. :sad:

June 21, 201313 yr

Whatever they do to block internet streaming it will always be circumnavigated by people.

well somebody had better teach me how to do that! :mad:

June 21, 201313 yr

Just got rid of my Sky subscription cause I can't afford it anymore so was planning on streaming all our games.... So much for that idea.

Depending on your phone model, you can get all sky sports channels for a fiver a month. You don't need any other Sky subscription. It won't allow HDMI cable connection though, but with sound through my HiFi and Galaxy Note2 it's watchable, and definitely worth a fiver a month to me.

June 21, 201313 yr

It's just an idea, but instead of trying to block illegal streaming sites (which will be a completely futile effort as always), they could concentrate on providing a reasonably priced legal alternative that people want to use.

June 22, 201313 yr

All I'l say is the pirate bay. They tried it with that, and it's going strong as ever.

June 22, 201313 yr

Ugh. I hate things like this on such a fundamental level.

By every rule of capitalism and the market these kind of business models should be not exist. Instead they get legal assistance to prop up obsolete business models.

Where this will change is when some big advertising sponsor like Samsung realises they are missing out on tens of millions of people viewing their branding and forces the leagues/television companies to introduce easily accessible online content.

June 22, 201313 yr

a few weeks ago they blocked the movie streaming website movie2k.be, outraged by this i did a quick google search and found a newly created website movie4k.to. that 5 second hassle was a such bummer

Edited June 22, 201313 yr by onebelo

June 22, 201313 yr

There are quite afew ways out there to watch most games.

I'm not panicking just yet.

June 22, 201313 yr

Ah, yes just like they were going to stop illegal downloading of mp3 files.

Good luck with that one.........

June 22, 201313 yr

They'll just keep changing the URL of the site everytime it gets banned, the whole thing is useless.

June 22, 201313 yr

Strong waste of everyone's time. Just let i go FFS. They have tried already with Piratebay and yes it gets shut down for a couple of hours every six months, but it really does accomplish f**k all..

Edited June 22, 201313 yr by Xfaxtor