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The most hardcore pirates rarely feel the need to justify their consumption habits. For those who are a little less militant, reasons to pirate are in plentiful supply.<\/p>\nThe most hardcore pirates rarely feel the need to justify their consumption habits. For those who are a little less militant, reasons to pirate are in plentiful supply.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s availability, price, inconvenience, not enough choice, or too many choices, there always a reason for piracy being the more attractive offer. <\/p>\n
For their part, opponents often dismiss these reasons as convenient excuses, places to hide while defending what some believe is straightforward theft. Take the same stance against a 3pm blackout \u2018excuse\u2019 and the argument quickly hits a dead end.<\/p>\n
The 3pm blackout refers to the period when broadcasters such as SKY cannot broadcast live football to fans in the UK. <\/p>\n
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Running from 2.45pm until 5.15pm on Saturdays, the \u2018closed period\u2019 was originally put in place to ensure that the draw of major games on TV couldn\u2019t deprive clubs in lower leagues of their significantly smaller audiences. <\/p>\n
Support for \u2018grassroots\u2019 football may at times be presented as benevolent, charitable even, but a failure to nurture home-grown talent risks reliance on expensive imports later down the road. Short-term \u2018gains\u2019 for not reinvesting money back into the game would\u2019ve been worth around \u00a3170 million to the Football Association according to its last set of accounts. <\/p>\n
Grassroots engagement, not to mention engaging the entire country in football, generation after generation, is fundamental to ensuring healthy match attendances at every level; that leads to lucrative broadcasting rights upon which the ecosystem relies. <\/p>\n
The 3pm blackout protects all of that, at the expense of locking all clubs out of a local live broadcasting market, in which they could enjoy exclusivity. Yet through artificial restriction that prohibits the existence of a potentially lucrative market, fans happy to hand over their cash have become increasingly frustrated.<\/p>\n
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Less invested fans in overseas markets are not only free to watch matches during the blackout, they do so legally at a fraction of the prices charged in the UK generally. <\/p>\n
So, if no money is made from UK fans during the blackout, piracy could be viewed as not just a reasonable option, but a logical common sense alternative.<\/p>\n
Can IPTV pirates offering 3pm matches hurt a market that doesn\u2019t even exist? And when fans watch matches, is that still straightforward theft from the Premier League, for example, and if so, what exactly are they being deprived of?<\/p>\n
For the clearest example yet that exploiting a market that doesn\u2019t exist is a serious crime in the UK, look no further than pirate IPTV service Flawless TV. <\/p>\n
After its operator quipped that the Flawless team \u201crun on English football time\u201d and it was privately recognized that the 3pm blackout was great for business, criminal prosecutions concluded that rights can\u2019t be exploited without first obtaining permission from the rightsholder. <\/p>\n
Excuses, reasons, and justification ultimately proved no match for custodial sentences totaling more than 30 years which in practical terms, failed to solve the problem. Pirates don\u2019t just exploit artificial restrictions, they thrive on them. If there was a gap in the market, it didn\u2019t stay that way for long.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the press at Sky\u2019s Premier League launch event this week, Sky Sports chief Jonathan Licht added<\/a> momentum to what some believe is the beginning of the end for football\u2019s 3pm TV \u2018blackout\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s clearly a direction of travel and lots of conversation about Saturday 3pms, and I think that will perhaps increase as we go through this cycle,\u201d Licht said. \u201cIt\u2019s a conversation that\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n Talking is clearly important but admitting that a problem exists should make the conversation a little less complicated. This week, Licht effectively admitted that the restriction fuels piracy, arguably football\u2019s biggest problem.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fair to say that 3pms have been a point for piracy coming into this market from various places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some might argue that refusal to serve an exclusive market is why exclusive markets shouldn\u2019t be allowed to exist. That\u2019s a whole new conversation but purely from the perspective of loyal fans, it actually does something far worse; it provides unrivaled justification for piracy and a gateway to even more.<\/p>\n When fans offer their money and it\u2019s refused year after year, pirate subscriptions and web-based streaming sites don\u2019t just solve the 3pm Saturday problem, they continue to work all week. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a real concern that despite the illegality and links to organized crime, [piracy] has been normalized. That\u2019s dangerous for everyone, the industry and rights holders,\u201d Licht said. So what can be done?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all of our responsibility in the industry to tackle piracy, whether that\u2019s lobbying big tech or engaging government,\u201d Licht said.<\/p>\n Controversial, perhaps, but is listening to the fans still an option?<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\nPiracy Profits From Exclusivity<\/h2>\n
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