DAZN Joins Anti-Piracy Coalition To Crack Down on Bootleg Sports Streams (theverge.com) 40
International online sports broadcasting company DAZN has joined a global task force that aims to shut down pirated and unauthorized sports streaming operations worldwide. The new group is operated by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which counts giants like Amazon, Apple, NBC Universal, Netflix, Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros. among its members. From a report: Unauthorized streaming sources can often be the only available option for people to watch certain teams and matches subject to complicated broadcasting deals, locked into high-priced bundles, and blackouts. With more tech and entertainment companies using sports as a sweetener for their services (NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, MLS / MLB for Apple TV Plus, and Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime are a few examples), they have more reasons to collectively take issue with anyone popping up a free stream.
ACE as a whole had previously taken down IPTV-based service NitroTV, which allegedly charged users $20 per month in the US for a collection of unlicensed streaming content. ACE was first formed in 2017 as the anti-piracy arm of the Motion Picture Association (formerly known as the MPAA until it dropped the second A in 2019). Now with DAZN, it consists of 53 big media companies.
ACE as a whole had previously taken down IPTV-based service NitroTV, which allegedly charged users $20 per month in the US for a collection of unlicensed streaming content. ACE was first formed in 2017 as the anti-piracy arm of the Motion Picture Association (formerly known as the MPAA until it dropped the second A in 2019). Now with DAZN, it consists of 53 big media companies.
How about (Score:3, Insightful)
I am not paying the outrageous prices for any of these piss poor services.
Are the media companies blind to the fact that piracy was down when Netflix dominated and it back on the rise since they fractured it?
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CBOs have the "C" for complex for a reason... and those can get insanely fine grained.
For example, where I live, the CBO disallows anyone in the city from viewing the local college's games, unless the place is a sports bar.
Pirating sports isn't about price... it is about availability. The local college wants to sell stadium tickets, so wants to force people to either watch the game at their stadium, or in a bar.
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Their cult members are vicious.
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This site has a few dozen users and hundreds of sock puppets. I haven't had mod points since Obama was in office.
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As they spend more on enforcement, expect them to raise the prices further. Only the lawyers win in the end.
Change is needed! (Score:3, Insightful)
As a sports fan, I am deeply conflicted about broadcasting rights, particularly with the emergence of DAZN. On the one hand, I understand the need to protect the rights and interests of broadcasters, who have invested heavily in securing equipment, personnel, and exclusive rights to telecast live sports events, such as MLB and NFL games. These broadcasters rely on advertisements, subscriptions, and other revenue streams to recoup their investment and generate profits. As a result, regional blackouts and restrictions are implemented to encourage viewership through the authorized broadcaster within specific markets.
However, as someone who lives more than four hours away from my favorite MLB and NFL teams' stadiums, I am increasingly frustrated with the limitations imposed on my ability to watch games (blackouts). I'm consistently denied access to my favorite teams' games!!!
I recognize that streaming services have revolutionized how we consume sports, making it more accessible to fans worldwide. But at the same time, I can't help but feel that the existing restrictions hinder the potential of these platforms to provide a genuinely inclusive and seamless viewing experience for all sports enthusiasts, especially fans who won't drive 4+ hours to be forced to watch a game in person at the stadium.
It is essential to balance protecting broadcasters' rights and ensuring that *ALL* sports fans can access and enjoy their favorite teams' games, regardless of location. Perhaps it is time for them to reconsider the current blackout policies and work towards a more flexible model that can adapt to the changing landscape of sports broadcasting. And yes, ***Make it more affordable***!!!!
In the age of digital streaming and increasing globalization, it seems counterproductive to maintain rigid regional boundaries. Instead, they should explore innovative solutions to create a more inclusive and accessible sports viewing experience for all fans.
ban disney from forcing ESPN in to basic plans (Score:2)
ban disney from forcing ESPN in to basic plans and change the retransmission fee rule to so that an OTA channel that wants an an retransmission fee can only sell that channel on it's own (can't be tied to paying for an other channel)
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I'd be more then willing to pay $5 a game if they would just let me watch my team whenever they are playing. I don't even have a local team for NFL in San Diego anymore. Being a denver fan, practically the only way to see them play is to pirate the stream. It's really lame.
I seriously can't stand all the broadcasting restrictions and local market BS.
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Haven't the MLB and NFL done away with local television blackouts? All of their games should be broadcasting on some locally-available network, be it a national network, a regional sports network, or local affiliate.
Just under what circumstances are
Are they trying to force copyright rebellion?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Then they came for the Gutenberg ebooks, but I did not speak out because I only read Playboy, for the pictures.
Then they came for the ChatGPT training sources, but I did not speak out because who needs Artifushul In-telly Gents.
Then they came for the alternate online sports sources and FUCK THESE MONEY GRABBING ASSHOLES ! STORM THE PATENT OFFICE ! MAKE COPYRIGHT FAIR AGAIN !
Let me pay you to stream them! (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a thought: How about you let me pay to stream them, then I'll quit pirating them. Seriously.
You literally can't (legally) stream a Minnesota Twins game right now unless you buy an entire cable package, and the cheapest one is close to $100/month after fees. I actually handed over my credit card to Bally Sports, perfectly happy to pay $20/month, only to find out they don't stream the Twins' games. I immediately cancelled, and went back to [pick your favorite pirate site], fuck them guys.
The more you tighten your grip... (Score:2)
The more you tighten your grip, the more streams will slip through your fingers.
STOP MAKING IT SO FUCKING DIFFICULT TO PAY FOR STREAMS WE WANT TO WATCH.
Mostly commercials (Score:2)
How anyone can watch an NFL game is beyond me. It takes 3-4 hours of network time and they show on average 11 minutes of the actual game. https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
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The reason you only get 11 minutes of action is that the clock is a very important part of the game. Teams will waste time when they have the lead. Gives them a better chance to win.
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That seems really, really boring.
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Which is why we have Hockey.
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Tell me again what the national anthem has to do with organized sports?
*yawn* (Score:3)
I love baseball. It's the only decent professional sport (in America). However, as an example, the MLB.tv app is absolutely dogshit. The stream quality is bad. The UI is bad. The functionality and performance is bad. And broadcasting rights? Ha, go fuck yourselves. Those are just as stupid and made up as water rights.
How about we stop paying athletes (and all "celebrities") multi-millions of dollars? They do not do anything worthy of "earning" 7+ figures. Cut all athletes pay by 75% to a minimum of 150k/year. Cap it at 300k/year for the best of the best. Team staff between 60k-120k depending on role. Bring down average ticket prices 50%. Invest in a platform that makes its cheap to stream from anywhere, including the hometown, and make the platform better and easier than the illegal ones. That is how you fix professional sport attendance.
Cracking down on these illegal streams isn't going to solve their problem. Sure, now people who aren't supposed to be watching aren't watching, but what does that solve? Does it push them to pay for your streaming service? Not if they couldn't afford it in the first place. Does it push them to attend the games in person? Well, if they can't afford your official streaming service, they probably can't afford tickets either - except maybe the nosebleeds that are meaningless and shouldn't have bothered being built. Or maybe they live 4 hours away from their "local" team which just makes it impossible to go to. Regardless, they keep thinking that these illegal streams are costing them money. They are not. They are losing viewership across the board, and it has nothing to do with availability of illegal streams. So, now they are spending more money to combat a "problem" that ultimately only further alienates fans, which will lead to further viewership loss.
Every single official major sport's app that you can subscribe to watch games on, is absolute junk. NFL app is garbage, I already covered MLB, NBA is barely a sport to begin with. Start with spending the money on making your own shit the best of the best first.
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It's the only decent professional sport (in America)
With its boring gameplay? People talk about the NFL not having much in the way of action, but the MLB is so much worse.
The Rays are the best team in baseball and I could care less. The Bucs are going to prolly be shit (You never know with the NFCS, we could go 8-9 with the rest going 7-10. Like last year) and I will watch every one of those games including the preseason. Football is much more fun to watch than a guy throwing a ball past a guy trying to hit it with a stick.
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Football WOULD be more fun to watch if literally every single referee in the NFL wasn't stupid as fuck along with 15 minutes of ads (or nothing if you're in person) between plays sometimes. I have a similar problem with baseball umpires, but at least umpires can be 100% replaced with computers. Sure, in football, every 3-5 minutes there are a lot of people all of a sudden, chaotic moving. And sure, I guess most monkey brains would consider more movement as more exciting. But I never said anything about exci
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Have you tried actually _playing_ baseball? For half the game one entire team just sits on the bench except for maybe a few who get to be at bat or stand on bases. On the other team nearly everyone just stands around, waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen. Most of the action is between the pitcher and the batter and the ball barely ever even gets hit. Understand that I only really played it in gym class and at various other times like with friends of a friend who was really, really into ba
Re: *yawn* (Score:2)
Mad Magazine recognized this years ago and invented a new ultra-violent version called Basebrawl. The pitcher uses a cannon and the bat is metal. Instead of dropping it you take it with you to fight off anyone who gets close. Motorbikes, explosions and all sorts of cool stuff to make it less boring.
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Maybe. Or just play a sport where all the players, or at least the majority of them, get to be in the game most of the time and actually get to participate. Football (soccer, not American) is not bad for this. You still play your position, but it's far, far less possible that any player will have no opportunity to get involved in the action at some point in the game than in baseball. Even when the ball doesn't actually come into your zone you follow it, you guard another player, etc. There's something to ac
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Every single official major sport's app that you can subscribe to watch games on, is absolute junk
I don't want another "app" to begin with. How many existing streaming platforms are out there that could easily add a "subscribe to this team for x$/month" add-ons? This isn't difficult because it's a hard problem to solve. It's difficult because the current players (not the actual sports players, the "stakeholders" in the entire endeavor) have made it difficult. Fucking backwoods level black-out rules, "exclusive game broadcasts", blah, blah, blah, blah. How about this: MLB (or whoever) produces the gam
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Oh dear. Having played both baseball and cricket and grown up in a household where the one TV was frequently tuned to baseball or cricket games, I have to go with baseball as more exciting, and I find baseball to be intensely boring.
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How about an anti-exclusivity coalition? (Score:2)
The blackout rules were for when a team couldn't sell out the stadium but once they do then we cheap fans get to watch the game - or - as it is now - never. Also people have less dis
Story Time! (Score:3)
Let me share a story of when I tried to go legit. I signed up for the NFL package thru my cell phone provider, Verizon. It was $99 for a year, which overall wasn't bad considering Football only matters for 6 months of the year. I'm a Bronco's fan who travels a few times a month during the last half of the year. The first trip I was on, I wanted to watch my home team play their first game. I opened the app and it wouldn't let me tune to the Bronco's game. It gave me a generic error that I had to go look up. Turns out, the NFL package would only let me watch the game being played in that local market, not the game I wanted. After that, I turned to using pirate services and haven't been disappointed since. The only reason the NFL, MLB, etc can do this is because they've legalized their monopoly and their hold over sports. Every one of the companies going after pirate services are getting paid big time, they only care about protecting their profits.
The service I use charges $50 for a full season of a sport (Like just NFL, or MLB, or NHL), it covers ALL OF THE GAMES in that sport, regardless of market and I can watch it any where in the world. I've used them for the past 5 years and look forward to spending every year with them.
The NFL destroyed their one opportunity with me.
You know I don't know about the rest of the world (Score:3)
So given that I'm already paying for these games with my tax dollars you'd think I'd have a right to watch them for free wouldn't you?
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Sure, just like all the free medicine and free access to patents from research we paid for.
A sportsnews article on Slashdot? Say it ain't so (Score:2)
It's about piracy
Whew! That was close...
eSports (Score:2)
Not only losing to piracy but losing the next generation to eSports where free and easily accessible streaming is the norm.
In Asia (Score:2)
I cut the cord when I found I could stream it all (Score:2)