5 ms·

I'll stand out here, because I work for a major sports streaming service. So let me be heard about live streaming at least: 1) Content needs to get paid for, i

by bobdvb 4y ago

I'll stand out here, because I work for a major sports streaming service. So let me be heard about live streaming at least: 1) Content needs to get paid for, if you're watching an illegally restreamed match then you're not rewarding people like me for the hard work we've done to get that game to you. It's not just faceless corporations, we're people and it's really hard to make a profit in the streaming world, so every viewer counts. 2) We don't decide how much the rights cost and on top of that we spend millions getting it to our subscribers (e.g. cloud providers, CDNs, developers). We've got to pay our bills, again, no streaming service is scalping right now. Delivering Tbps of streams is hard! 3) Many live sports re-streaming services really are run by organised crime gangs. I have involvement in some revenue protection work, there's not just hacking, there's also money laundering, we've even encountered links to people trafficking in the same organisations. I'm sure you think it's an exaggeration, but it's real and it's not just some guy in his basement doing this stuff. 4) The companies that invest in technology for this stuff often invest in things like AV1, FFMPEG, Exoplayer, stuff that's available to the wider open-source community. We, as organisations, contribute back to the world in other less obvious ways. Hurting us hurts the community as well. 5) Lastly, I presume that most people here get paid for their work, or at least would like to be paid for what they do in the future. Put yourself in my shoes: how would you feel to have your work ripped off? Oh, and then someone else profits from it? Hmm, not cool. That app you work on? That website you support? Maybe you hate your employer enough that you don't care if they get ripped off, but most of the people I work with love their work, so consider that as well. I am sure people will argue against all my points, but they stand none the less. What I will say, unofficially, I sympathise with people who cannot watch our content because it's not available in their market and I also have some sympathy for those who are too poor to pay. But I'd assert that 99% of the people who pirate our content are not too poor and have ways of watching legally, they just choose to go to the dark side.

hotpotamus 4y ago
Your points are what they are, but I have to say that I find major sports to be the about the least empathetic target you could have chosen. Even college sports in the US are awash in money and we somehow end up using public money to build stadiums for teams of deca-millionaires owned by billionaires. I get that there are plenty of working stiffs who put it all together, but I think they'd be better off asking the bosses for more of a share than admonishing the anonymous masses who just want to watch a game once in awhile.
- bobdvb 4y ago
  Except all that money is part of the leagues themselves, I', confident we'd happily pay less for the rights. Ultimately as a platform we're trying to charge as little as possible to capture the largest audience, there's no exclusivity we're driving. Personally, I'd love if it leagues allowed multiple platforms to carry the same right in the same country, so we could compete entirely based on customer service and service quality. But they love to drive up the bidding war because it gets them more money. Don't hate the player, hate the game. I'm not aiming to attack anyone for doing it, more asking people to understand that there are consequences to piracy more than they expect.
cryptonym 4y ago
It's not about bad people not willing to pay, it's about your employer or their partners trying to milk consumer with different platforms and artificial restrictions. When you push too far, people will try alternatives ways (potentially illegal) or stop watching. Sure, you will always find some people who will never pay. Focusing your business on this audience doesn't sound smart. Just design something convenient and most people will be happy to pay. Basically, I wouldn't blame people for the current streaming landscape.
- bobdvb 4y ago
  Research says that 30% of pirate consumers are "pay never" and couldn't be convinced to watch legitimate streams. I recall when we did a boxing match and made it available free, you could sign up for a free trial and then cancel, yet our anti-piracy measures showed huge numbers of pirate streams watched by a large number of people. So, even without restrictions, only asking people to follow a simple sign-up process, we still had piracy. Also as I've said in another reply, the cost and market restrictions aren't a consequence of the streaming platforms decisions, they're what the rights owners/leagues decided is their business model. I don't want to attack anyone, just remind people that piracy isn't just innocent fun.

by bobdvb 4y ago

hotpotamus 4y ago

Your points are what they are, but I have to say that I find major sports to be the about the least empathetic target you could have chosen. Even college sports in the US are awash in money and we somehow end up using public money to build stadiums for teams of deca-millionaires owned by billionaires. I get that there are plenty of working stiffs who put it all together, but I think they'd be better off asking the bosses for more of a share than admonishing the anonymous masses who just want to watch a game once in awhile.

bobdvb 4y ago
Except all that money is part of the leagues themselves, I', confident we'd happily pay less for the rights. Ultimately as a platform we're trying to charge as little as possible to capture the largest audience, there's no exclusivity we're driving. Personally, I'd love if it leagues allowed multiple platforms to carry the same right in the same country, so we could compete entirely based on customer service and service quality. But they love to drive up the bidding war because it gets them more money. Don't hate the player, hate the game. I'm not aiming to attack anyone for doing it, more asking people to understand that there are consequences to piracy more than they expect.

cryptonym 4y ago

It's not about bad people not willing to pay, it's about your employer or their partners trying to milk consumer with different platforms and artificial restrictions. When you push too far, people will try alternatives ways (potentially illegal) or stop watching. Sure, you will always find some people who will never pay. Focusing your business on this audience doesn't sound smart. Just design something convenient and most people will be happy to pay. Basically, I wouldn't blame people for the current streaming landscape.

bobdvb 4y ago
Research says that 30% of pirate consumers are "pay never" and couldn't be convinced to watch legitimate streams. I recall when we did a boxing match and made it available free, you could sign up for a free trial and then cancel, yet our anti-piracy measures showed huge numbers of pirate streams watched by a large number of people. So, even without restrictions, only asking people to follow a simple sign-up process, we still had piracy. Also as I've said in another reply, the cost and market restrictions aren't a consequence of the streaming platforms decisions, they're what the rights owners/leagues decided is their business model. I don't want to attack anyone, just remind people that piracy isn't just innocent fun.