3 ms·

It would be unthinkable to somehow outlaw "geographic licensing". Imagine how sports rights work. In country A there is a football league which people from cou

It would be unthinkable to somehow outlaw "geographic licensing". Imagine how sports rights work. In country A there is a football league which people from country A are happy to pay $50 a month to watch. They can also consider watching the Country B league, but are only ready to pay $5 for that. In country B the situation is the opposite. If rights had to be sold at the same price, then the maximum you could charge is $5 for either league in either country. And if you could subscribe across borders with differing prices, then everyone in Country A would buy the subscription from Country B and save 90%.

slavik81 5y ago
I think the more likely scenario is that the price would be $50/mo in both countries. Nobody would be willing to buy it in the foreign country, but dropping the price would sacrifice too much profit in the home country to be worth it.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  Right. And this just hurts everyone in the end. The league might have half its viewers and income in other countries (lots of $5 viewers spread out over dozens of countries together add up). So not being able to sell it is a big loss. Likewise for me as a $50 viewer, since the league has less money and this less quality. Without differentiated demand-base pricing there will simply be inefficiency that means everyone loses. The geo restrictions is what enables market pricing, not the opposite.
YmiYugy 5y ago
The solution is right there. You pay $50 regardless of whether you are in country A or B Alan’s get access to both leagues. As a fan of club X I might only be interested in games club X plays in or would at least be willing to pay a lot more for these games, but I still pay for the entire league. I think that removing geoblocking is an important step for the single market and the creation of a shared European identity.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  That would be great, but you just shifted the problem into “make all leagues agree about deals for broadcast rights” which is about as easy as making hbo and Netflix agree on a package deal.

slavik81 5y ago

I think the more likely scenario is that the price would be $50/mo in both countries. Nobody would be willing to buy it in the foreign country, but dropping the price would sacrifice too much profit in the home country to be worth it.

alkonaut 5y ago
Right. And this just hurts everyone in the end. The league might have half its viewers and income in other countries (lots of $5 viewers spread out over dozens of countries together add up). So not being able to sell it is a big loss. Likewise for me as a $50 viewer, since the league has less money and this less quality. Without differentiated demand-base pricing there will simply be inefficiency that means everyone loses. The geo restrictions is what enables market pricing, not the opposite.

YmiYugy 5y ago

The solution is right there. You pay $50 regardless of whether you are in country A or B Alan’s get access to both leagues. As a fan of club X I might only be interested in games club X plays in or would at least be willing to pay a lot more for these games, but I still pay for the entire league. I think that removing geoblocking is an important step for the single market and the creation of a shared European identity.

alkonaut 5y ago
That would be great, but you just shifted the problem into “make all leagues agree about deals for broadcast rights” which is about as easy as making hbo and Netflix agree on a package deal.