Live streaming of games allowed next season?

Leeds_Addick

Just been reading an interview with the new investor at Leeds as I take an interest in them being up here.

Putting aside the fact that he seems very positive for the club and seems a lot more clued up on how to invest in a football team for success than our lot. He also talks about "potentially a website with live streaming of games allowed by the new agreement with the (Football) League next season.".

I know we're due to get a new in-house website and finally get rid of the awful Player service next year. But does anyone know about these new streaming rules?

Will we all be able to buy subscriptions that'll let us watch the games from home next year?

Link to article if anyone's interested: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/leeds-united-owner-andrea-radrizzani-reveals-clear-vision-for-whites-1-8335440

cafc-4-life

I'm not sure and I'm not clued up to answer your question. But i'd love the opportunity to stream each game as I work most Saturdays. Not sure why it hasn't come available sooner..

SoundAsa£

Mmmmmm........I have my doubts this will materialise.......surely there's a great danger of attendances falling dramatically. How could they justify it?
It needs a great deal of thought and consideration.

paulsturgess

This should not be allowed

se9addick

I would imagine it will be live streaming of matches for people outside the UK, obviously using a VPN will make it simple to watch the games live here too

Sheepie1985

Would damage attendances all over the place, only have to look at attendance figures when a game is on TV to when it's not, they're always lower

Dazzler21

This should definitely be allowed. Will seperate the hardcore from the 'sofa' fans that spend £100+ on a visit plus match ticket.

cantersaddick

Is someone finally going to buy choice a battery pack?!

Redrobo

I would love it for away games, but can't see Sky etc paying out a fortune to cover when everyone can get it on a free stream. The premiership would implode.

colthe3rd

cafc-4-life said:

I'm not sure and I'm not clued up to answer your question. But i'd love the opportunity to stream each game as I work most Saturdays. Not sure why it hasn't come available sooner..

Because the powers that be live in the dark ages. Football in this country must be the only sport in the world that has kept hold of it's stringent laws in regards to showing live games. At one time they made sense, not so much anymore.

happyvalley

Ducktape will be able to watch all our games now.

DRAddick

Can see it definitely happening eventually. But ultimately The FA will do what ever Sky (and now BT) tell them to do regarding this.

kings hill addick

colthe3rd said:

cafc-4-life said:

I'm not sure and I'm not clued up to answer your question. But i'd love the opportunity to stream each game as I work most Saturdays. Not sure why it hasn't come available sooner..

Because the powers that be live in the dark ages. Football in this country must be the only sport in the world that has kept hold of it's stringent laws in regards to showing live games. At one time they made sense, not so much anymore.

I suspect that there wouldn't be enough demand (£s) for a company to stream games for anything other than the big clubs. Clearly Leeds could justify it but most clubs out of the Premier League couldn't.

Also it has to be said that as the 'Pirates' are always going to be ahead of the game most of the people that have the technical knowledge to watch a streamed game are going to be able to find one without paying.

Those with Kodi machines can stream any and all of the Saturday Premier League games and, I believe, pubs are getting in on the act and making a fortune showing them. I can't see any broadcaster thinking they can make enough money to bother setting it up.

I am finding it harder and harder to drag myself to The Valley these days, and I have a season ticket. If I could watch the games at home I'd probably stop going altogether. I couldn't even drag myself to watch Millwall yesterday. The Football League would be shooting themselves in the foot if they allowed this to happen.

Robbo on the wing

Far too much live football available.
If you want to watch it, get off your arse and go.
If you can't make it, buy a radio.

InspectorSands

Can't see the 2.45pm-5.15pm Saturday blackout being scrapped anytime soon - even though it's a seriously leaky dam, especially now anyone with an Irish Sky Sports subscription can get Saturday 3pm kickoffs, and streaming sites are getting better and better - without huge concessions to non-league and smaller Football League clubs.

But maybe this is something for weeknight matches? (And even then there's a Uefa block on showing matches at the same time as Champions League/ Europa League matches.)

Not quite sure how much would be in it for Leeds as rights are sold collectively so they'd get 1/24th of a Championship deal. Would be a bit of a break for the Football League to allow clubs to sell their own streaming rights (and very harsh if you're, say, Scunthorpe). Maybe it's something the Football League wants to tack onto the next rights deal (so you'd be able to watch some evening kick-offs through Sky Go/Now TV/whatever).

daveydanger

happyvalley said:

Ducktape will be able to watch all our games now.

As long as he's not too busy eating lunch.

SDAddick

Isn't it literally illegal to show games from 3-5pm on a Saturday in the UK?

I would be in favor of it. I think that law is archaic. Right now a lot of people can watch Premier League games via illegal streams, and most stadiums are still packed. Plus, the added revenue could 1) help the lower leagues close the gap on the Prem and 2) potentially allow them to lower ticket prices.

Basically, it's going to happen eventually. Pirate streams are already way out in front. You may as well cash in on what's already being done. The game has changed from 20 years ago, and you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

colthe3rd

Yep still illegal to show games at 3pm on a Saturday. Leads to the ridiculous situation where they can't even show Barca v Real live. As has been mentioned live streaming can be done to see all PL games even if they're not on sky or BT. The only way to beat this is to offer it themselves.

kings hill addick

SDAddick said:

Isn't it literally illegal to show games from 3-5pm on a Saturday in the UK?

I would be in favor of it. I think that law is archaic. Right now a lot of people can watch Premier League games via illegal streams, and most stadiums are still packed. Plus, the added revenue could 1) help the lower leagues close the gap on the Prem and 2) potentially allow them to lower ticket prices.

Basically, it's going to happen eventually. Pirate streams are already way out in front. You may as well cash in on what's already being done. The game has changed from 20 years ago, and you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

But to cash in on it they need to have a full set up at every Football League club with commentators, editors, producers etc. It's ok if they show just a couple of games each Saturday but all of them would require in excess of 30 teams and I can't see how it can break even, never mind make money. The ITV Digital went bust because there was virtually no interest in PPV FL games.

Dansk_Red

The EFL did trial streaming games back to grounds of the away team last season. I think it was mid week evening games.

Algarveaddick

SDAddick said:

Isn't it literally illegal to show games from 3-5pm on a Saturday in the UK?

I would be in favor of it. I think that law is archaic. Right now a lot of people can watch Premier League games via illegal streams, and most stadiums are still packed. Plus, the added revenue could 1) help the lower leagues close the gap on the Prem and 2) potentially allow them to lower ticket prices.

Basically, it's going to happen eventually. Pirate streams are already way out in front. You may as well cash in on what's already being done. The game has changed from 20 years ago, and you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

Sorry SD, I need you to clarify this for my simple brain. Where is the added revenue that helps the lower leagues close the gap and lower ticket prices going to come from? If you are talking about some kind of TV deal for 3PM games exclusively for lower league teams like us, it'll be the same kind of "bag of crisps and a pickled egg" deal we get at the moment. No glory hunting 19 year old in Shanghai is going to eschew his undying lifetime devotion to Liverpool for Scunthorpe just because they are on tele every week, any more than a glory hunting 19 year old from Scunthorpe is going eschew his lifetime devotion to some club from 100 miles away for the one whose ground he can see from his bedroom window... If you are talking about the Premier League, where "most stadiums are still packed", why on earth would they be any more inclined to share their big fat bloated TV riches than they are at the moment?

Mark_West49

It'll be aimed at foreign markets, particularly Asia, where Neulion have experience - think I read they streamed last year's FA Cup Final... the EFL seem hell bent on chasing the yen and the thai baht - hence the ludicrous rebrand of the League Cup to the Carabao Cup... I wish they'd leave tradition alone - the FA Cup's the FA Cup, not the Emirates....I don't even know who half the shirt sponsors are anymore - like West Brom's; and 30 years on I still haven't got a clue who Hafnia are despite Everton wearing it for six years. Either way, I can't see many people rushing to watch Hartlepool v Mansfield... the reality's a long way from the global marketing opportunity the EFL would have us believe...

http://www.efl.com/news/article/2016/efl-digital-new-long-term-partnerships-announced-3193708.aspx

kings hill addick

Dansk_Red said:

The EFL did trial streaming games back to grounds of the away team last season. I think it was mid week evening games.

This works for games where there is sufficient demand for the away team. We had one of these for our game at Millwall last season (or the season before) and there was a couple of hundred fans in the North stand lounge.

However in this instance there is guaranteed income - tickets plus beer and food. This might not have even made money but none of that income can be generated if fans are allowed to watch the games in their homes, and I doubt that we have more demand for tickets than supply for anyone else, unless it's a significant game, and then it's likely to be on normal tv and played outside of the Saturday ban.

SDAddick

Algarveaddick said:

SDAddick said:

Isn't it literally illegal to show games from 3-5pm on a Saturday in the UK?

I would be in favor of it. I think that law is archaic. Right now a lot of people can watch Premier League games via illegal streams, and most stadiums are still packed. Plus, the added revenue could 1) help the lower leagues close the gap on the Prem and 2) potentially allow them to lower ticket prices.

Basically, it's going to happen eventually. Pirate streams are already way out in front. You may as well cash in on what's already being done. The game has changed from 20 years ago, and you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

Sorry SD, I need you to clarify this for my simple brain. Where is the added revenue that helps the lower leagues close the gap and lower ticket prices going to come from? If you are talking about some kind of TV deal for 3PM games exclusively for lower league teams like us, it'll be the same kind of "bag of crisps and a pickled egg" deal we get at the moment. No glory hunting 19 year old in Shanghai is going to eschew his undying lifetime devotion to Liverpool for Scunthorpe just because they are on tele every week, any more than a glory hunting 19 year old from Scunthorpe is going eschew his lifetime devotion to some club from 100 miles away for the one whose ground he can see from his bedroom window... If you are talking about the Premier League, where "most stadiums are still packed", why on earth would they be any more inclined to share their big fat bloated TV riches than they are at the moment?

A great point, and let me clarify, it's an added revenue stream (no pun intended), full stop. No, nothing like or anywhere near what the Premier League gets, but it's something. You would also hope that, with a stream, ad revenue would increase due to increased exposures.

That said, @kings hill addick brings up a very good point about ITV digital, the infrastructure can be pretty expensive. I have to confess I was thinking more the Championship and maybe top of League One, not all the way down the pyramid. And yeah, if you have to spread out costs as well as profits, it probably wouldn't bring in much.

I still feel like it should be done.

Something that could be tried is something similar to what we have in the states for baseball--home games are "blacked out" in local regions to encourage fans to go, whereas away games are shown. I know there are a lot of ways for people to get around it, but it's just a thought.

Bangkokaddick

Mark_West49 said:

It'll be aimed at foreign markets, particularly Asia, where Neulion have experience - think I read they streamed last year's FA Cup Final... the EFL seem hell bent on chasing the yen and the thai baht - hence the ludicrous rebrand of the League Cup to the Carabao Cup... I wish they'd leave tradition alone - the FA Cup's the FA Cup, not the Emirates....I don't even know who half the shirt sponsors are anymore - like West Brom's; and 30 years on I still haven't got a clue who Hafnia are despite Everton wearing it for six years. Either way, I can't see many people rushing to watch Hartlepool v Mansfield... the reality's a long way from the global marketing opportunity the EFL would have us believe...

http://www.efl.com/news/article/2016/efl-digital-new-long-term-partnerships-announced-3193708.aspx

One problem: people in Asia and no doubt other overseas markets, have no interest at all in Championship or EFL football, hence the fact that just about all local TV stations have dropped EFL coverage. Maybe that's why they are considering a streaming service, just for those few overseas fans that follow lower division clubs.

The FA cup is not really appealing and as for the League Cup under it's various guises: forget it. I didn't even know it's being rebranded next season as the Carabao Cup and I live in Thailand! Thanks for the info. Will it bring in more Thai viewers? Well, with every game except the Final in the early hours of the morning here, I very much doubt it.

The Premier League has a huge following but even there, outside of the big six, interest wanes, though exposure against the so-called bigger clubs means certain clubs can negotiate a good sponsorship deal with Asian companies, many of whom couldn't or wouldn't pay the amounts the likes of Chelsea demand, though I'm pretty sure Singha's perimeter advertising at Stamford Bridge doesn't come cheap.