23 Feb 2009Premier League voices concerns over illegal streaming

Football Sponsors/ Sponsorship and Media

The Premier League warned yesterday (February 22nd) that the illegal streaming of live matches could have a serious financial impact on the league in the coming years.

With some sites attracting as many as 250,000 viewers, legal action has been taken against five UK-based providers, while the Premier League has a class action pending against Google and YouTube in the US, the BBC reports.

However, Oliver Weingarten, the body's lawyer, has explained that not all streaming sites can be reached and that the trend could damage the value of top-flight rights deals in the UK.

He told the news provider: "The long-term consequences for the game are that it has the potential to devalue or dilute the rights value, and in turn that will dilute the product that we are able to turn out and the quality of player coming to the league.

"Once a site has stopped streaming it can set up another domain name, or the internet service provider may be safe-harboured in a country where the laws don't provide as much protection as we would like."

Mr Weingarten added that the knock-on effect of lower television rights could be falling gate receipts and matchday revenues if fans can simply watch fixtures online for free.

The latest Premier League rights deal saw it earn a total of £1.782 billion.

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