“Complex webs of criminality” UK sports fans in dark as piracy continues to rise
As football fans across the UK struggle during the cost-of-living crisis, many are choosing illegal streams over the multiple TV subscriptions required to be able to watch just a portion of games. How these streams are produced, however, has a dark underbelly.
Matt Cutler, a freelance sports business journalist has been taking a dive into this underworld of football piracy, which has over recent years seen a rise in both consumption and production. His aim is to produce a documentary exploring where these streams originate from, and what can be done to tackle the problem.
Pirating streams can often be seen as a victimless crime, particularly by people who already pay for media subscriptions. The research that Cutler has done so far, however, shows that could not be further from the truth.
“There are very complex webs of criminality out there… The type of criminals who are doing sports piracy are the same criminals who are doing lots of the other stuff that’s happening in society, such as drug smuggling, money laundering, prostitution, that type of thing. Sports piracy, it’s almost like another new revenue stream for them.”
Despite 1.25 million people in the UK admitting to having watched an illegal Premier League stream before the start of the 2022/23 season, Cutler believes that viewers are largely unaware of how these streams are produced. He said: “It’s definitely not something that people are aware of, the real kind of depth of criminality that’s going on. There are layers and layers and layers, and I think people don’t necessarily realise that.
“There are sophisticated criminal businessmen and women doing this, and there’s a structure behind it.”
Cutler makes it clear that “the consumption of illegal sports piracy has continued to grow, at least in the UK, over the last six to 12 months”, and he believes this can be partly attributed to rising inflation over the past two years.
“There’s definitely a cost-of-living crisis thing happening. If you look at research surveys, a quarter of people are cancelling entertainment subscriptions. So, if you take that at face value, that’s basically one in four people saying ‘if I have 10 subscriptions, Apple TV, Netflix, Spotify, Sky Sports, I will reduce the amount of those’.”
The difficulty with cutting subscriptions for sport, and in particular the Premier League, is that games are spread across three separate platforms. Sky Sports, BT Sport, and Amazon Prime all have a limited amount of games they are able to show, to access all would cost upwards of £300 a season.
This does not even consider that even with all three subscriptions, only 200 of the 380 games would be broadcast throughout a season if you are watching from the UK.
Cutler believes that rising costs and limited access are contributing factors to the rise in sports piracy, “80% of people who pirate sports are already paying. There’s a kind of a psychological thing there of, I can be a fan of the football club, I can have a season ticket, I can have three subscriptions, and there will still be games where I can’t watch. So (they think) I have paid my money, therefore I am justified to watch a game”.
Cutler added: “I think there’s an argument to be said that football at the end of the day is meant to be a working-class sport, and it’s become way too expensive, frankly, more than anyone probably ever predicted”.
Part of the issue with the lack of access on TV for football fans in the UK comes from the 3pm blackout rule. Also known as ‘Article 48’, it was first introduced in the 1960s as a way to protect lower-league attendance. With sports piracy on the rise, however, the blackout is easily manoeuvred by a determined fan.
Cutler believes this is a rule that will not last much longer, “The blackout rule in the UK will have to disappear at some stage. I think we’ll see that in the short to medium term.”
Premier League piracy is also on the rise inside pubs across the UK, which Cutler particularly suggests is in part because of the blackout rule, “the pubs who look to be showing illegal streams tend to be 3pm kick-offs. It tends to be that they have their official subscriptions and they’re looking to top that up with 3pm kick-offs.”
Over recent months, however, there have been signs of a crackdown by UK law enforcement on sports piracy. In January, it was announced that UK police would be visiting over 1000 homes of people they suspected were accessing illegal streams to watch TV shows, including Premier League football.
Cutler, however, believes that whilst police have suggested that people caught engaging in illegal streaming could face prosecution, there is little likelihood of further action. Reflecting on the story of police visiting 1000 homes, he said: “If you find that story on Twitter and look at the responses to it, all the responses are – is it wise to use Police resources to be going around knocking on people’s doors for watching football that they can’t get on TV, instead of tackling knife crime or anything like that.
“My instinct is that we’re probably not going to see a huge amount of activity like that (police intervention) purely because the backlash that they get from it is almost counterintuitive.”
Cutler does not see an end to sport piracy in the near future. Like many, he believes a single platform showing all Premier League games would offer fans more value for money. With multiple broadcasters still willing to outbid each other for the games, this hope remains a pipe dream.
He said: “As long as there’s still broadcasters looking to pay for a rights fee that is either the same or above, then the alternative is way more difficult. You’re basically having to take a hit on revenue because (currently) you have a broadcaster put up the money for you and do the distribution for you.”
Whilst so far sport piracy has not played a role in negotiations between broadcasters and the Premier League, Cutler suggested that a breaking point could be closer than many expect.
“Because logically, if piracy is increasing and there’s a cost-of-living crisis, and already people appear to be cutting subscriptions or streaming outside of what is legal, then it’s almost like a perfect storm coming.”
Cutler added, “Lots of the economic predictions are that the cost-of-living crisis might go on for another five years, so if that happens then maybe if a broadcaster does turn around and say that then that might be the moment where things change, or things have to accelerate.”
