Anyone on here from Maidstone or surrounding area? If so I heard recently that 5 pubs in the town are being sued by the F.A. for showing Prem football without a license. Anyone shed any light?
This is the sort of behaviour you would expect from Pubs in Gillingham, Chatham, Strood not from the well off part of Maidstone, Carlsberg hang your head in shame Maidstone is the New medway Towns...FACT
Carlsberg's fault. Maidstone has gone downhill since he moved there.
I heard a couple of pubs in Chatham are getting collared too but that's probably not true, we're much better behaved than those naughty Maidstone boys.
Sky have been trying to clamp down on this for a while and have had similar operations in Portsmouth and Blackburn districts. Don't know anything about these cases other than what is here
It's a difficult one as they need the local police to enforce the law when the Police may not always see it as a priority hence going for high court writs. Also the law has been challenged and the international copyright is a bit unclear or at least that's what the pub's lawyers are arguing.
Sky pay a lot of money for their cash cow of Premier League Football so from a business point of view you can see why they would want to protect it. Other pubs in Maidstone that do pay for legit Sky may also be miffed to see competitors getting it for nowt.
I can understand the argument from a retail business point of view. I.e X pub in Chatham has Al-Jazeera satellite and pays nowt whilst Y pub less than a ten minute walk down the road pays a ridiculous amount of money for SKY that would cost about £45 to a residential customer. Also X pub shows Saturday 3pm kick offs when Y pub cannot so it is an unfair advantage.
The part about it putting people off going to Saturday football is rubbish though, if you would rather watch 3pm football down the pub than actually go to the ground on a semi-regular basis then I don't think that particular individual would ever have spent any money going to the games anyway. It can affect however decisions on going to away games or not. Everton last year anyone?
Sky and the clubs have brought it on themselves IMO. Ticket prices have got to ridiculous levels, pricing out the average joe at many clubs, while Sky have charged the most ridiculous of percentage increases to pubs in the last 4 years because they feel the pubs have no choice but be forced into it.
Some pubs risk a way around it, and it appears as if the laws are slightly unclear. good luck to them, and i actually think it is positive for the clubs because it keeps a lot of people more actively involved in following their clubs games / progress, and in turn encourage them to go again, buy more merchandise etc, than if they just just didn't go and noted the score as the results come in.
I hope the xxxx doesn't get a kickin', it showed all Charlton away matches on what I believe was Italian sky? Nice fella the guy that runs it, proper Charlton fan. Just wish I could remember his name!
i agree about the clubs and Sky's pricing. It's a shame that with all the money little has gone to cut or even hold ticket prices. Since Taylor prices have shoot up. Just a cost of living increase would mean tickets at £17 for adults which is roughly what we are being asked for at Colchester and a lot less than just about everywhere else.
Can't agree about dodgy TV keeping more people involved and making them go more. Yes more people may buy a big teams shirt to wear to the pub but I doubt that many of those people will even try t get tickets for a live game with their own clubs and would look down their noses at going to Gillingham, Maidstone or even Charlton. Only two boys in my sons team go to games (the other is a Palace ST holder) but they all have the shirts. Most have never been to any live game yet they are all keen on football and watch Sky. Their parents don't go and don't think about taking them. It's on TV so why bother.
What they are is Premiership fans and their experience of Premiership football is almost entirely via the TV. We are evolving into two different species of fans IMHO. Those who go and those who watch on TV.
[quote][cite]Posted By: AFKA Bartram[/cite][quote][cite]Posted By: millaphile[/cite]I hope the XXXXXXXX doesn't get a kickin', it showed all Charlton away matches on what I believe was Italian sky?[/quote]
erm, it probably will now..... :-([/quote]
Have you got an address I can pass on to any nice people at Sky?
[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite] What they are is Premiership fans and their experience of Premiership football is almost entirely via the TV. We are evolving into two different species of fans IMHO. Those who go and those who watch on TV.
But from a clubs point of view that someone who buys the shirt, and goes just once or twice a season, is not as important as those that go every week, but they are still important to the club as they are (smaller) income providers, and more potential to work on.
There is potential in every market, if someone starts to get Charlton interest because there is a big group down the pub watching a game and they get chatting, or it encourages a lapsed fan to take a bit more interest, then it will all be a benefit to the club.
hope xxxxx doesn't get a kickin', it showed all Charlton away matches on what I believe was Italian sky?
erm, it probably will now..... :-(
Ooops engage brain next time! He sold it and moved to spain now anyway I believe. Besides he used to show sky sports on one screen complete with mini pint in corner and Charlton on screen at front so he must of paid his dues!
[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]What they are is Premiership fans and their experience of Premiership football is almost entirely via the TV. We are evolving into two different species of fans IMHO. Those who go and those who watch on TV.
But from a clubs point of view that someone who buys the shirt, and goes just once or twice a season, is not as important as those that go every week, but they are still important to the club as they are (smaller) income providers, and more potential to work on.
There is potential in every market, if someone starts to get Charlton interest because there is a big group down the pub watching a game and they get chatting, or it encourages a lapsed fan to take a bit more interest, then it will all be a benefit to the club.
True there are potential young or lapsed fans which where Valley Express and cheap league cup tickets come in. Are you listening Luton? Gillingham? but there are some for whom going to a game and what that means in times of cost and travel is just not how they expect to experience football. I watched an England game in a club and someone was complaining that he couldn't hear the commentry in a packed club. I jokingly said "It makes it more like watching the game live" and he looked as if I was mad. Of course all Football has commentary and replays.
There is also the argument that 'all publicity is good publicity'.
Football is one of the biggest brands in the world. When fake clothing hits the markets, does it really have a big knock on the profits of Ralph Lauren, or Burberry for example ? Not really, it helps make the brand more well known and indirectly lifts sales.
[cite]Posted By: AFKA Bartram[/cite]There is also the argument that 'all publicity is good publicity'.
Football is one of the biggest brands in the world. When fake clothing hits the markets, does it really have a big knock on the profits of Ralph Lauren, or Burberry for example ? Not really, it helps make the brand more well known and indirectly lifts sales.
Not sure about that. Things are normally only "bootlegged" when there is an exisitng demand not the other way around. And the example of Burberry is that through cheap copies a once hign end brand has now became associated with "Chav".
If the perception is that football is "free" and totally available for all games in the pub then why pay anything at all to go and watch it. It's a difficult balancing act between showing off the product and swamping people with it. So far TV and Sky had been good for football in terms of publicity and money but I'm not sure if that will continue.
[cite]Posted By: AFKA Bartram[/cite]There is also the argument that 'all publicity is good publicity'.
Football is one of the biggest brands in the world. When fake clothing hits the markets, does it really have a big knock on the profits of Ralph Lauren, or Burberry for example ? Not really, it helps make the brand more well known and indirectly lifts sales.
I was just reading on the BBC that Middlesboro estimate that around 60 (or was it 70??) pubs around their area show the games illegally, undoubtedly that has a negative effect on attendances.
As for the bootlegged brands, we aren't really discussing the same thing, few people will buy a fake Ralph Lauren shirt in preference to the real thing, they buy it because it's fake and therefore considerably cheaper, not because it has fallen off the back of a lorry.
Comments
I heard a couple of pubs in Chatham are getting collared too but that's probably not true, we're much better behaved than those naughty Maidstone boys.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1648717.mostviewed.football_chiefs_sue_pub_boss_over_illegal_football.php
It's a difficult one as they need the local police to enforce the law when the Police may not always see it as a priority hence going for high court writs. Also the law has been challenged and the international copyright is a bit unclear or at least that's what the pub's lawyers are arguing.
Sky pay a lot of money for their cash cow of Premier League Football so from a business point of view you can see why they would want to protect it. Other pubs in Maidstone that do pay for legit Sky may also be miffed to see competitors getting it for nowt.
The part about it putting people off going to Saturday football is rubbish though, if you would rather watch 3pm football down the pub than actually go to the ground on a semi-regular basis then I don't think that particular individual would ever have spent any money going to the games anyway. It can affect however decisions on going to away games or not. Everton last year anyone?
Some pubs risk a way around it, and it appears as if the laws are slightly unclear. good luck to them, and i actually think it is positive for the clubs because it keeps a lot of people more actively involved in following their clubs games / progress, and in turn encourage them to go again, buy more merchandise etc, than if they just just didn't go and noted the score as the results come in.
erm, it probably will now..... :-(
Can't agree about dodgy TV keeping more people involved and making them go more. Yes more people may buy a big teams shirt to wear to the pub but I doubt that many of those people will even try t get tickets for a live game with their own clubs and would look down their noses at going to Gillingham, Maidstone or even Charlton. Only two boys in my sons team go to games (the other is a Palace ST holder) but they all have the shirts. Most have never been to any live game yet they are all keen on football and watch Sky. Their parents don't go and don't think about taking them. It's on TV so why bother.
What they are is Premiership fans and their experience of Premiership football is almost entirely via the TV. We are evolving into two different species of fans IMHO. Those who go and those who watch on TV.
erm, it probably will now..... :-([/quote]
Have you got an address I can pass on to any nice people at Sky?
But from a clubs point of view that someone who buys the shirt, and goes just once or twice a season, is not as important as those that go every week, but they are still important to the club as they are (smaller) income providers, and more potential to work on.
There is potential in every market, if someone starts to get Charlton interest because there is a big group down the pub watching a game and they get chatting, or it encourages a lapsed fan to take a bit more interest, then it will all be a benefit to the club.
erm, it probably will now..... :-(
Ooops engage brain next time! He sold it and moved to spain now anyway I believe.
Besides he used to show sky sports on one screen complete with mini pint in corner and Charlton on screen at front so he must of paid his dues!
True there are potential young or lapsed fans which where Valley Express and cheap league cup tickets come in. Are you listening Luton? Gillingham? but there are some for whom going to a game and what that means in times of cost and travel is just not how they expect to experience football. I watched an England game in a club and someone was complaining that he couldn't hear the commentry in a packed club. I jokingly said "It makes it more like watching the game live" and he looked as if I was mad. Of course all Football has commentary and replays.
Football is one of the biggest brands in the world. When fake clothing hits the markets, does it really have a big knock on the profits of Ralph Lauren, or Burberry for example ? Not really, it helps make the brand more well known and indirectly lifts sales.
Not sure about that. Things are normally only "bootlegged" when there is an exisitng demand not the other way around. And the example of Burberry is that through cheap copies a once hign end brand has now became associated with "Chav".
If the perception is that football is "free" and totally available for all games in the pub then why pay anything at all to go and watch it. It's a difficult balancing act between showing off the product and swamping people with it. So far TV and Sky had been good for football in terms of publicity and money but I'm not sure if that will continue.
I was just reading on the BBC that Middlesboro estimate that around 60 (or was it 70??) pubs around their area show the games illegally, undoubtedly that has a negative effect on attendances.
As for the bootlegged brands, we aren't really discussing the same thing, few people will buy a fake Ralph Lauren shirt in preference to the real thing, they buy it because it's fake and therefore considerably cheaper, not because it has fallen off the back of a lorry.