Envisional tracked a number of Champions League matches on the two major file sharing networks, bittorrent and eDonkey. The aim was to monitor the number of post-event downloads of copies of the entire match.
In November 2007, a group match between Manchester United and Roma was monitored. Overall, 9,100 downloads were tracked on bittorrent and 800 on eDonkey.
On 23 April 2007, the second leg of the semi final between Manchester United and Barcelona was monitored. The match was much anticipated after a 0-0 draw at the Camp Nou and as expected, downloads were higher than for the group match earlier in the season: 11,000 obtained the match through bittorrent and 1,800 through eDonkey.
Analysis of the peers involved in downloading the most popular version of the match showed a wide range without the focus on China seen from live peer to peer streaming. This demonstrates the worldwide usage of bittorrent. France, the US, and the UK showed the largest proportion of downloaders. Interestingly, Spain (the home country of Barcelona) is very low in terms of downloads on bittorrent. However, this fits with what we know about file sharing in Spain where eDonkey is extremely popular and bittorrent much less so.
6 Case Study: Basketball
-
Participating organisation: National Basketball Association
6.1 Introduction
The global popularity of the National Basketball Association has continued to grow. Games from the NBA are currently broadcast in more than 200 countries and territories across 41 languages. NBA content is extremely popular in China, where the NBA has more than 50 authorised telecast partners in greater China. The popularity of the sport in China has been furthered by the successful introduction of a number of prominent Chinese-born players into the league. According to NetResult, an estimated 78% of viewers of unauthorised streamed NBA games are located in China.
6.2 Live streaming data
Over the past two NBA seasons, 172 sites have been found which provided unauthorised streams of NBA games online. Of these, just under three-quarters (74%) were related to P2P streaming and most of these directly embedded streams with 30% offering links to these streams. SopCast is by far the most utilised P2P service found to offer NBA streams without authorisation.
6.3 Audience size and composition
On the 16th December 2007, a total of almost 1.1 million views were registered on a SopCast
channel that streamed the Dallas Mavericks v
Houston Rockets game. From a large sample of those connected to this game, by far the largest percentage (78%) were located in China. This is the largest documented viewing for a SopCast NBA stream and was likely enhanced by the inclusion of Yao Ming, a Chinese-born player who participated in the game.
Since March 2008, the number of viewers on SopCast has started to decline slightly. This slight fall in SopCast viewership may be due to the NBA’s recent partnerships with PPLive and PPStream (see below), although the decline also could be attributed to the migration of viewers to other streaming sites such as TVAnts and TVKoo. For example, the April 26th 2008 Boston Celtics v Atlanta Hawks Playoff game streamed on a SopCast channel had just over 125,000 views, although this game was not streamed legitimately by either of the NBA’s partners, PPLive or PPStream. The reduced number of views for this stream also may have been affected by the fact that no Chinese-born player participated in the game.
While China is the most significant problem for the NBA, the problem of unauthorised streaming is not limited to China. Over the past year NetResult has identified streaming websites in Europe, the United States, and Canada engaged in the unauthorised streaming of NBA games.
6.4 Partnership Strategies
Recognising the popularity of their association’s content in China, the NBA chose to pursue a strategy most likely to have an immediate impact on the problem of unauthorised streaming. The organisation partnered with some of the most widely viewed sites distributing unauthorised streams of NBA games. Services were created with both PPLive and PPStream to allow a large number of NBA games to be offered live through each developer’s technology, at no cost to the end user. Providing these legitimate streams of NBA programming could have yielded a positive effect: according to data from NetResult, the average number of viewers of unauthorised streams of NBA games has declined since 2007, although the number of NBA games being streamed without authorisation has remained the same.
As mentioned earlier in the report, the ability and desire to pursue a similar business model may not be present for other sporting leagues – particularly in the near-term when exclusive rights agreements have already been established for many sports in China and elsewhere.
7.1 Introduction
The final section of this report examines the problem of internet-based piracy as it affects the other participant organisations. This is not to suggest that these sports have any less of a problem than cricket, football, and basketball – sports which were chosen as case studies because of the range of data available and the particular nature of the issues surrounding them.
7.2 Baseball
-
Participating league: Major League Baseball
Live telecasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games are frequently pirated online. This is despite the fact that the internet and interactive media company of MLB (MLB Advanced Media, L.P. or MLBAM), offers a subscription-based online service through which most MLB games are available live to Internet end-users on a worldwide basis. MLB.TV is currently priced at $79.95 for a yearly subscription.
MLBAM reports that in 2007 it documented more than 3,200 unauthorised live internet retransmissions of MLB game telecasts, primarily through P2P services located in China. During the current 2008 MLB season thus far, documented incidents have increased by more than 25%.
Within the 2007 MLB season, SopCast service was responsible for a large number of these incidents but following SopCast’s decision earlier this year to ban unauthorised MLB streams from its service, the centre of activity has shifted to the TVAnts service (also based in China).
The continued growth of this type of digital piracy is underscored by MLBAM’s recent experience. Despite the fact that vigorous rights enforcement led to the closure of SopCast to pirated MLB game telecasts, piracy incidents are up by more than 25%. The range of services available and the ease with which users can move from one to another as required means that the locus of piracy of MLB games has simply shifted elsewhere.
Finally, it should be noted that based on its rights enforcement efforts (which include monitoring of linking sites and message boards), MLBAM believes that the bulk of the audience for the pirated games on Sopcast and TVAnts is outside China, demonstrating the international nature of the interest in live streaming and in MLB games.
7.3 Tennis
-
Participating organizations: All England Lawn Tennis Club; French Tennis Federation; Lawn Tennis Association; Tennis Australia
From the start of 2006, three grand slam tournaments have been monitored each year: Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and Roland Garros, making a total of seven events at the time of this report (the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Australian Open and the 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon and French Open). During that time, 129 sites were located featuring unauthorised tennis streams. The majority of these (95) were related to live P2P streams, either as developers or link distributors (portal sites).
Only a small number of dedicated streaming sites and servers were located, indicating that it is rare for a server or site to be produced specifically for the purpose of streaming tennis events to internet users. This is likely down to the low demand for such a service. However, there are indications that the situation is becoming worse for tennis – particularly during grand slams – as fans better understand the technology available and the opportunities offered by live streaming. While monitoring for the 2008 Australian Open, NetResult located 59 sites offering unauthorised streams or linking to those streams, compared to just 70 such sites in total for six tournaments (an average of 11.6 sites per tournament) between 2006 and 2007.
Of the 79 distributors or portals of P2P streams, 55 (69%) directly embedded a stream with the remaining number providing direct links to similar streams. Only two ‘blogspot’ sites were located featuring a tennis stream, showing a strong difference in profile to cricket.
-
Participating league: Australian Football League
Australian rules football has a strong core following in its home country but is little known or supported by those not from Australia. However, as the country has one of the largest proportions of expatriates living abroad, particularly in Commonwealth destinations like the UK, there is a small but strong demand for AFL content beyond the Australian border. Between four and eight games are shown live (or near-live) on free-to-air television in Australia with other games and content available on subscription services. The digital rights for AFL games are granted to Telstra. Full audio commentary on all games is freely available worldwide online but the company does not offer any authorised live videos streams of games online. However, a comprehensive highlights package is available through the BigPond Australian ISP to subscribers in the country. It is therefore surprising that AFL games are rarely located on live P2P streaming services. The fact causes some consternation amongst those looking for live action as a recent thread on the MyP2P portal forums demonstrated:
Hey everybody. Will/can anybody post some Aussie Rules Football (AFL) please? Thank you!
no live streams mate. I just listen to live games through AFL game day live (3 or 4 Aussie radio stations) and then watch the games 2 days later on bigpond footy TV. Its not perfect, but its more than we had last year.
This has an effect on the range and type of action taken by the AFL against those offering unauthorised access to their content. There is (at present) little need for a service which patrols the internet for live streams, though it is always important to monitor this situation on an ongoing basis as there is a clear demand for this type of service. The AFL has had success in attempts to control the spread of post-event content. The threat of legal action against eight bittorrent sites which carried post-event games or highlights was successful. For instance, AussieTorrents, which specialised in offering Australian sports to its members, was shut after a complaint from the AFL and Diwana, another private bittorrent tracker, removed all AFL content to escape litigation.
Telstra’s concerns around unauthorised use of their footage at the user level has focused on UGC sites with demand letters sent to a number of individual infringers.
7.5 Rugby
-
Participating leagues: International Rugby Board, Rugby Football League, 6 Nations Rugby, Rugby Football Union
The streaming profile for Rugby Union and Rugby League is very similar to that for tennis: few dedicated servers or other sites, with most infringing content offered through general P2P streaming portals and known developers. During the 2007 and 2008 Six Nations and 2007 Rugby World Cup (three events in total), 70 sites were located which concerned the live streaming of rugby matches. 52 of these sites (75%) were linked to live P2P-based streaming.
It is possible that the relatively lower number of cases for rugby – even compared to tennis – is because there may be less interest in the sport in China at this stage, home of the main P2P developers and many of the channels available on such services. In addition, many of the countries in which rugby is popular will show important rugby matches on free-to-air television as well.
Monitoring by Envisional for a separate project shows that Rugby Union matches are available on the eDonkey file sharing network, particularly where those matches include the French national team. Analysis of downloads of a number of matches from the 2007 Rugby World Cup found numerous copies of the France V England semi-final on the network as well as earlier group matches featuring the team. eDonkey is heavily used in France.
Information from the Rugby Football League indicated that their main concern (apart from UGC sites) was with the availability on bittorrent of games post-broadcast. After major RFL events, the league had noted pirated content appear on popular trackers such as ThePirateBay.
7.6 Motorsports
-
Participating sport: Formula One
Monitoring of the 2007 Formula One season located 79 infringing sites, with 61% using P2P methods to distribute content. A relatively high proportion of sites required a subscription to access streams (20%) compared to the 80% which provided content for free. 56% of the infringing sites were located in China.
The most popular single stream for the first four races of the 2008 season was analysed, with viewing figures ranging from 56,000 to 152,000 for the most popular race. Interestingly, a SopCast stream for the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix showed the highest number of viewers from Finland, likely a result of interest in Finnish drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Heiki Kovalainen.
7.7 Athletics
Comprehensive coverage of major athletics events (such as the Olympics and World Athletics Championships) can be found on live streaming services. Other events such as IAAF Grand Prix, Golden League events, and marathons appear with much less regularity.
7.8 Golf
-
Participating organisation: PGA European Tour
The wide range of regular golfing events across the world which are televised mean that there are golf tournaments that are often streamed live. This includes regular PGA and European Tour events as well as the four majors. However, there are rarely more than two or three individual streams from which to choose for most tournaments and audience figures appear to be low, except for final day action of major tournaments.
7.9 American Football
-
Participating organisation: National Football League
During the relatively short NFL season, almost all televised games can be located on live streaming services online. Streams are popular both with the large following enjoyed by the NFL outside the US (American football has large pockets of followers in both the UK and Germany) and also with expats eager to see live matches. However, streams also enable US viewers to get around blackout restrictions in their local markets – so a New York resident can view New York Giants or Jets games even when those games may not be available on television in their immediate area.
7.10 Horseracing
-
Participating organisation: British Horseracing Authority
It is possible to stream live horse racing online, and this is done though traditional broadcaster sites (including racing specific broadcasters such as At the Races) as well as well-known racing specific sites (such as the Racing Post). Due to the close historical link between
horseracing and betting, streaming is also carried out by sites primarily offering betting services. Generally, access to such streams is available only to those who sign up with such sites and deposit money in their accounts. The legal and regulatory framework in relation to the rapidly growing online sports betting market is complex and confused, with no coordinated cross-border treatment. Under many national laws, it is unlawful, although online bookmaking is legal in the UK and a number of other markets. Many online operators are sited in tax havens. As technology develops to increase speeds, it is the view of The British Horseracing Authority that unauthorised streaming will increase as it represents the most significant promotional tool for unlawful betting activity. This will apply to other sports as well as racing.
8 Appendix A: List of Sporting Organisations Involved in Report
To contact the sports, please direct any queries to Oliver Weingarten at
sportsrights@sroc.info.
-
6 Nations Rugby
-
All England Lawn Tennis Club
-
Australian Football League
-
British Horseracing Authority
-
Cricket Australia
-
Deutsche Fussball Liga
-
England and Wales Cricket Board
-
European Professional Football Leagues
-
Fédération Française de tennis
-
FIFA
-
Football Association
-
Football League
-
Formula One
-
International Rugby Board
-
Lawn Tennis Association
-
Ligue du Football Professionnel
-
Major League Baseball / MLB Advanced Media
-
Marathons
-
National Basketball Association
-
National Football League
-
PGA European Tour
-
Premier League
-
Rugby Football League
-
Rugby Football Union
-
Scottish Premier League
-
Tennis Australia
-
Scottish Premier League
-
Tennis Australia
-
UEFA
