FabGuys.com forum: Football and other premium TV being pirated at 'industrial scale'

By *tar33 OP Man
2 days ago

North London (outer)

A lack of action by big tech firms is enabling the "industrial scale theft" of premium video services, especially live sport, a new report says.

The research by Enders Analysis, external accuses Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft of "ambivalence and inertia" over a problem it says costs broadcasters revenue and puts users at an increased risk of cyber-crime.

Gareth Sutcliffe and Ollie Meir, who authored the research, described the Amazon Fire Stick - which they argue is the device many people use to access illegal streams - as "a piracy enabler".

The increasing cost of rights deals results in higher prices for fans at home, especially if they choose to pay for multiple services to watch their team play.

To get round this, some resort to illegal streams of big events.

Enders say there are often multiple streams of individual events - such as high profile football games - each of which can have tens of thousands of people watching them.

Bosses of big rights holders, Sky and DAZN, have previously warned piracy is causing a financial crisis in the broadcast industry.

The Amazon Fire Stick is a major cause of the problem, according to the report.

The device plugs into TVs and gives the viewer thousands of options to watch programmes from legitimate services including the BBC iPlayer and Netflix.

They are also being used to access illegal streams, particularly of live sport.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3n7dx2174o

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By *ull bi for funMan
2 days ago

hull

My wife is scared the firestick police will knock on the door so she won't let me have a firestick. Despite her paying for Netflix and other channels.

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By *ichey6Man
2 days ago

aberdeen

Firesticks for the streetsmart...

Innit...

I was called a sticky many a time..

But that's another matter...

The heat is on....

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By *tar33 OP Man
2 days ago

North London (outer)

"My wife is scared the firestick police will knock on the door so she won't let me have a firestick. Despite her paying for Netflix and other channels. "

No one's going to be knocking on your door, especially if you have a VPN. I have Surfshark which is well priced, can be used on multiple devices and has built in security and other measures.

I also have a Fire Cube instead of a Fire stick, it's faster, has a higher 4K definition Alexa and can be connected to ethernet if you have it.

Reddit is your friend.

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By *optobottomrctMan
2 days ago

Penygraig

I am a fan of Cycling races. Unfortunately over the past 2 years the subscription to watch has been hiked up from c£30 a year om GCN to over £30 a month on greedy Discovery.

To continue to watch I have had to subscribe to a VPN and watch via SBS on Demand in Australia ffs.

If the station owners weren't so greedy I wouldn't need to do this. So I have no quarms at all. They've brought it on themselves.

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By *ub4anellTV/TS
2 days ago

near waterloovile

Piracy usually occurs when a product is over priced in a market.

This is what has happened in the uk with football. In many foreign markets the cost is much lower for the same product. The public aren't stupid, it is the Broadcast rights companies that are greedy.

If they lower their prices the piracy will disappear.

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By *oose1Man
2 days ago

doncaster

Just pure greed that leads to sale if fire sticks for viewing sports etc p

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By *laireKTV/TS
2 days ago

Manchester

Where's the evidence a broadcaster is struggling?

DAZN recently paid 1 BILlion dollars for a meaningless FIFA club world cup rights package.

ITV bid zero pounds.

There's a major reason for this, they seek global revenue.

This article makes it seem like the UK illegal viewer is the problem, when really piracy is a global issue.

Some fans stream so that they can watch their team every week. It's not all about cost.

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By *orcester GuyMan
2 days ago

Worcestershire North

Greed is what’s driven it so companies only have themselves to blame

Visit Spain and every bar will have fire stick skysports on

No one batters an eye

Only in uk do we pay people good money to enforce eu regulations

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By *ichey6Man
2 days ago

aberdeen

Easily plugged if the dastardly 2tiertops knock at the door in the dead of night.....

🤔

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By *reambunMan
2 days ago

Bristol/Bath

I've paid £14 for a football shirt. I don't care that it's made in Thailand or possibly by a young person as that child is earning money. Who's going to feed these families ? Seriously it's easy to say Boycott them but put something else in place.

Anyway I know for a fact that many football clubs use the same outlet and get local sweatshop to sew on a logo.My son won't ware fakes and we pay £60 surely that's the real child exploitation

Wife's against Firestick but now through reading this I'm getting a Firecube.Yes they are greedy and deserve.

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By *laireKTV/TS
2 days ago

Manchester

I thought the latest fire sticks had been upgraded to prevent side loading?

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By *oose44Man
2 days ago

liverpool

If they brought subscription costs down to a reasonable level not many would bother with firesticks etc and they’d probably make more money. Just to watch tv on each different subscription provider would probably cost couple hundred a month then still have to pay for other ones that aren’t included. Sky charge for some movies that came out years ago, even though paying for movies. It’s just a blatant rip off which causes people to go down the pirate route.

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By *ft pensionerMan
2 days ago

"I thought the latest fire sticks had been upgraded to prevent side loading?

The new vega model yes..the older 4k Max etc no

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By *ichey6Man
2 days ago

aberdeen

Alan Vega ate my firestick 😭

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By *ft pensionerMan
2 days ago

"Alan Vega ate my firestick 😭"

Alan Vega was the front man of the band " Suicide" ,so I'm not surprised

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By *ranford cruiserTV/TS
2 days ago

Heathrow

Sky are greedy shit bags they bring it on them selves

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By *ichey6Man
2 days ago

aberdeen

"Alan Vega ate my firestick 😭

Alan Vega was the front man of the band " Suicide" ,so I'm not surprised

....

...

Indeed he was....

'A man walks up to me and says are you Alan Vega?

Yeah I'm Alan Vega

You're finished, you're fucked up'...

From the Techno track VEGA GOD

Sabres Of Paradise?

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By *ft pensionerMan
2 days ago

"Sky are greedy shit bags they bring it on them selves "

There's a video on YouTube ,called something like..

" Why you should ditch sky" saying the same...pure greed.

sky,amazon prime,etc etc,( amazon prime you paid to watch films with no advertising, now they've put advertising in ...at the same subscription cost) ..

It's little wonder Firesticks have become popular..

The only once facing execution are the blokes putting the sideloaded apps on( fully loading) and selling the loaded firesticks..

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By *ichey6Man
2 days ago

aberdeen

Cottage industry innit....

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By *tar33 OP Man
2 days ago

North London (outer)

"I thought the latest fire sticks had been upgraded to prevent side loading?

The new vega model yes..the older 4k Max etc no"

In any case the Firestick doesn't have a monopoly on the capabilities for this, it's just an Android device with a few additions. Android boxes are cheap to buy and have no such restrictions.

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By *asman359Man
2 days ago

Nailsea

In shock news, people try to find a cheaper way to do something cos it's getting increasingly expensive

particularly when you have to subscribe to multiple platforms

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By *vmarisaTV/TS
2 days ago

Motherwell

I applaud this Great British entrepreneurism. Isn't technology and a slightly crooked mindset a wonderful thing. Mx

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By *hillWithBenefitsMan
2 days ago

Ask

I found a trick for keeping the subscription service programmes. With Amazon, you could only stream or download it, but it's copy-protected. Same with many others like Netflix. If I start watching a series, and I like the First couple of episodes. I will download the entire season, all of them. and store them on my server, as I found a way of removing the copy protection legally.

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By *tar33 OP Man
1 day ago

North London (outer)

I watched the Champions League final last night, and I don't subscribe to sports channels any more.

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By *im le2Man
9 hours ago

aylestone leic

Who asked the TV companies to pay billions of pounds to show football. It's us the paying viewer that has to pay for it.

There are that many companies doing it now local pubs can't afford to show them all. My small local pub gets charged over £2,000 a month to show just two channels now he's down to just one channel.

Plus 9/10 the match I want to watch isn't on any of the channels.

If I can watch a pirated channel that shows the games I want to see them I will.

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