The Premier League are threatening legal action against San
Francisco-based video- streaming portal Justin.tv
Thousands of fans are logging on to the site, co-founded by
24-year-old Yale graduate Justin Kan, to avoid paying subscriptions
to British TV companies Sky and Setanta, which hold the exclusive
UK rights to show live Premier League matches.
Last Wednesday, only Arsenal’s incredible 4-4 draw with
Tottenham was broadcast live in England. Yet, by simply logging on
to www.justin.tv fans could watch Manchester United’s 2-0 triumph
over West Ham, Chelsea’s 3-0 win at Hull, Fulham’s 2-0 win over
Wigan and the Emirates eight-goal thriller — all LIVE.
Not surprisingly, the United game was most viewed, with 167,138
hits, while the Arsenal-Spurs showdown boasted 148,063
viewers.
Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson insisted: “We are in
contact with this site and their lawyers and are seeking to prevent
any further abuse of our rights.
“The streaming of live Premier League matches without permission
is not only illegal, but also unfair on fans who have paid to go to
matches or subscribed to Sky and Setanta.
“Their support means clubs can buy and develop the best players
possible and invest in bigger, better and safer grounds.” England’s
4-1 World Cup qualifying win over Croatia in September was also
shown live on Justin.tv — despite the match being broadcast
exclusively by Setanta Sports.
Six separate streams were available, with commentary coming from
Setanta’s Jon Champion. The most popular feed saw a peak of 30,819
viewers.
The FA last night confirmed their lawyers will also be sending a
legal letter to Justin.tv bosses. An FA spokesman said: “We are
aware that websites around the world are seeking to exploit the
popularity of English football.
“We take any infringements of our broadcasting rights very
seriously and we will be looking at this particular website very
carefully. “We always take action to protect our rights and will do
so again in this case.”
Justin.tv hit the world stage when Kan strapped a camera to his
head and started streaming every moment of his life over the web.
The site, launched in March last year, quickly evolved and now
boasts thousands of diverse lifestyle channels, from the breeding
of boa constrictors to news from Pakistan.
But the live football streams are by far the most popular area
of the site among UK users, especially on a Saturday afternoon when
games are unavailable to viewers in this country. And the concept
couldn’t be simpler. Anyone with legal live access of a game can,
via a webcam pointed at their TV screen, upload their feed to
Justin.tv for the world to watch — illegally.
For instance, last Sunday’s Premier League clash between Chelsea
and Liverpool was available live on no fewer than EIGHT different
channels on Justin.tv. And the best quality feed came through one
called p2pstation.net, which had uploaded a feed from a user
watching South African sports channel Super Sport. The English
commentary came from ex-Spurs boss David Pleat and Sky’s Alan
Parry.
The channel had no fewer than 574,000 hits with a peak of 19,081
viewers watching at any given time. British TV companies signed a
£2.6BILLION three-year deal with the Premier League in August 2006
to screen football (both live and highlight packages) until
2010.
Sky splashed out £1.3bn and Setanta £392m to secure exclusive
live UK rights, while the BBC coughed up £172m and Sky, together
with BT, another £84m for British highlights. And the Premier
League also raked in a further £625m by selling overseas rights but
Justin.tv did not buy these.
Setanta Sports marketing director Timothy Ryan said: “As rights
holders we believe what Justin.tv is doing amounts to piracy. It
contravenes the owners’ rights which has implications for us. “We
are working closely with the Premier League and other rights
holders to clamp down on piracy such as that represented by
Justin.tv.”
Since its launch, the website has added one million users and
has racked up more than half a million hours of video — or 62 YEARS
— on the site. Justin.tv’s numbers are stunning: over the last
year, over 90,000 channels have been created, more than 24,000
events broadcast and more than 61,000 video clips uploaded from
Justin.tv to YouTube.
Justin.tv’s own promotional website wording reads: “Justin.tv is
building a destination site for broadcasting and watching live
video online while chatting with friends. “The company’s mission is
to enable viewers and broadcasters to interact and exchange ideas
in real time through chat and live video.”
And their mission, in their own words, reads: “In the past, live
broadcasting was only available to large media corporations who
were willing to spend millions of dollars.
Today, Justin.tv has democratised live video by shrinking all of
the functionality of an expensive TV satellite trunk into a laptop
or desktop computer.”
Justin.tv chief executive officer Michel Seibel refused to
comment on the scandal, saying only: “I haven’t got the time to
talk to you and you can’t talk to anyone else about this
matter.”
It’s not the first time Justin.tv has been in trouble for
flouting British law. The Scottish FA successfully took action
against the website after it showed archived Celtic games in breach
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Illegal broadcasts in pubs and clubs are already reported to
cost Sky, Setanta and the football authorities at least £3m a year
in lost revenue. Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney’s
uncle John Morrey, 56, was fined £4,000 last October for showing
Sky Sports matches illegally at his Liverpool pub, the Old Stanley
Arms.
