Beating Sport Broadcast Piracy - Saving The Shots Vs. Removing The Goal

In the sports industry, the significance of broadcasts as a source of funding cannot be overstated. For more popular sporting events, revenues from broadcast deals will generally overshadow the other revenue streams. For traditionally less popular sports, a broadcast deal can significantly increase the scope for higher sponsorship revenues to be negotiated with commercial partners due to increased exposure. Consequently, the increased revenue potential[1]  associated with broadcast deals is often relied heavily upon for maintenance and growth at the top level, but also all the way down to the grassroots level (especially where the rightsholder is the national governing body of a sport).[2]

There is one factor at play, however, that threatens to undermine the value of this systemically important subsidy: piracy.  This article explains the current commonplace legal solutions to combatting piracy, before considering whether it could be significantly diminished by focussing on another approach.  Specifically, it looks at:

• The scale of the problem: a comparison to the music industry
• Current legal 'solutions' to combat piracy
  • Takedown Requests
  • Blocking Orders
  • Search Engine De-Indexing Requests
  • Police Intervention
  • Broadcast Security Tools
• How to combat piracy with lasting impact?
  • Addressing AdTech Companies
  • News Laws For AdTech?
  • A Commercial Solution
• Comment