Sports piracy crackdown faces a costly test as illegal streams spread

Sports broadcasters are stepping up efforts to stop illegal streams as piracy spreads among UK fans, threatening a lucrative rights model that has helped fund professional and grassroots sport. But the crackdown faces a basic challenge: viewers may resent the cost of legal access, and shutting down streams does not guarantee they will buy subscriptions instead. [1]

The BBC reports that around half of UK sports fans say they use alternative ways to watch paywalled content, citing research by Ampere Analysis. The figure rises to more than 70% among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to Ampere researcher Daniel Monaghan. A separate survey by the Sports Industry Group found that 58% of fans considered illegal streaming socially acceptable.

The scale was apparent at this year’s Champions League final, which was behind a UK paywall for the first time in more than 30 years. Research by Gaming Compliance International, commissioned by the Guardian, counted 3.7 million UK IP addresses accessing illegal streams, compared with about seven million people watching legally, the BBC reports.

A costly rights model

The Premier League’s latest domestic broadcast deal was worth £6.7bn over four years, with nearly as much again from international rights. Broadcasters have also paid large sums for exclusive coverage of other sports, while live events on free-to-air television have become rarer.

That model is under pressure as advertising revenues fall and audiences move away from long-term subscriptions. A report by WPI Economics put the annual cost of illegal sports streaming to broadcasters at about £700m. Fans, meanwhile, may need several services to follow different competitions: the BBC says a keen viewer could pay £80 to £100 a month.

A dispute over French football illustrates the risks for rights holders. DAZN ended its deal to show France’s top division after a bitter disagreement with the league, which included the streamer’s complaint that more should be done to combat piracy. Subscriber numbers were also understood to be an issue. The league’s broadcast income subsequently fell from roughly €700m a year to €412m this season, according to figures cited by the BBC. Angers SCO said the affair had cost the club €30m over two seasons.

Enforcement and its limits

Authorities have pursued people running or selling illegal services. The BBC reports that one man in Lancashire was jailed for six and a half years in August, and a Pembrokeshire postman received a sentence of more than three years in June. Several pubs have also been fined for screening matches illegally.

Broadcasters and sports bodies take down hundreds of thousands of streams each year, but new links often appear, sometimes hosted in other countries. The industry-funded Federation Against Copyright Theft says illegal services can expose users to fraud and the theft of personal data. Its investigations manager, Nick Sumner, says the current priority is educating viewers about the risks, while warning that crimes are being committed.

The number of viewers prosecuted for watching pirated streams is extremely low, the BBC reports. A more punitive approach could prove difficult to enforce and risk alienating fans; it would not ensure that people who currently watch illegally would pay for legitimate services. The longer-term concern for sports is whether piracy, alongside wider financial pressures on broadcasters, will limit what they are willing to pay for rights—and, in turn, the money that flows through the game.