www.bbc.co.uk
They're jailed for selling the service, not watching it.I know none of you have done this
TV fraud gang jailed for illegally streaming Premier League games
A gang sold cheap subscriptions to an illegal service showing games not otherwise available in the UK.
There was a £7m fraud that went on … maybe they would not reveal where the monies went to so that contributed to the harsher sentence? (I’m not saying it’s right)
Depriving sky of money they can ill afford to lose, oh my heart bleeds.
Exactly. Seven million quid, a £5.99 table from Argos and too tight to pay for a cleaner.Should get an extra couple of months for not tidying up his room
Here in NZ I was paying $25 per month last season with Spark Sport for the EPL and a few other sports.
Not disagreeing any of this but if there is no legal means of watching a game then obviously there will be a market for it.
Obviously it sounds more spectacular leaving this little fact away.
We've heard this a million times not every game has to be on TV and not every game has to have a TV audience ?
If it weren’t so poorly priced I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I’d have no problems going the legal route.
The pandemic definitely distorted people’s expectations around how much football should be televised. While it is a bit annoying when games aren’t shown, I just shrug and move on
No matter how reasonable the legal channels made Premier league coverage, IPTV would still be cheaper and offer infinitely more value. Same goes for Gillette razor blades in the shops vs a man down the pub. There’s always scope for a discount when the goods are stolen. It’s down to the individual to make a moral choice about whether they are comfortable with that or not.
Funding any criminal activity ends up funding more criminal activity, it’s never isolated when it’s done on an industrial scale.
My view is this taking the United Brentford game as an example (for the record I was at the game) but it was a 8pm kick off - an individual could have a subscription for BT sport, Amazon, sky, Disney, MUFC tv or whatever it is called but despite paying for all this can’t watch the game anywhere legally in the UK whereas Michael from Nairobi can. There is something wrong here IMO. I can understand the point for Saturday 3pm kick off to a degree but not for an evening game. Solve this issue first and then you will go halfway solving the issue of illegal streams. Although not sure why anyone would pay for this when there are lots of free streams around (as I have been reliably informed) ?
I think the problem here is that with the internet, many have come to expect it as a 'right' that they should be able to access pretty much anything that is televised and many of these people want it for nothing.
I don’t disagree, but when you decide to make the experience so tiresome to navigate, viewers are always going to gravitate to what they deem is a better option.
You know the saying, ‘no ethical consumption under capitalism.’ No doubt is it illegal, but the likes of Sky TV make it an easy choice. They’ve been on a mission to ruin football for the last 30 years. If pirating makes me a bastard then I’m fine with going to hell with them.
I very much doubt that viewers subscribed to this and other illegal streaming services because they wanted to watch, say Bournemouth V Sheffield United and it wasn't live on Sky. They did it to save money.
I'd say it's both. I know plenty of League 2 and League 1 fans who use similar services because it's quite literally the only way to watch their teams. For £5 a month or so, can you blame them? I know I won't.
I believe the 3pm blackout as dated as it appears, is designed to help protect lower league clubs. I can sort of understand the logic. Young kids coming up either going to support Stockport in person at 3pm on a saturday or having a chance to watch United on telly could become a real problem
Have you got any facts as I know in Italy they pay as much as we do and have the same old things with games being on sky Italia, dazn, sky sports etc
Cos it’s illegal and feeds worse crime - does it really? Where is the evidence to support this assertion?
I quite agree. That’s why it really great with me paying taxes to this government.
IPTV I've seen generally doesn't buffer as bad as the online streams do. That aside, I've seen it offered for £45 for the year in some circles (no, I haven't taken the offer), ranging up to £90. All those subscriptions mentioned are £540 for the whole year, which is more expensive than some actual season tickets, with less actual coverage than the dodgy stick will get you. Especially during a cost of living crisis, saving 500 quid a year is going to appeal to most.
You also get more than just football on IPTV.
It's absurd that you think it's absurd that they made £7m illegally - and shouldn't be sentenced to a few years inside.
But what if you were in a distant land Far, far away from civilisation. Say, Isle of Wight. Or Bracknell. Somewhere like that. And you had no chance of getting to a game to get your footy fix whatsoever. Even less chance now Scummers have been relegated. If the options were £20 or just don't watch Brentford, would you rather give up this fine form of entertainment? God things get so desperate here sometimes I'd pay £20 to watch the Teletubbies if they dressed them in red and white and gave them a beach ball.
