With the amount of streaming providers online with access capable through a variety of home products, piracy is clearly a major problem for sports. Such matters have been of particularly high concern to both the boxing and football premier league in recent years with significant amounts of revenue lost due to illegal pirate streaming.
We even saw someone recently brazenly streaming UFC 218 by pretending he was playing a game! In a report via the Independent, however, the latest sporting organisation to express their concerns is the FIA, the governing body for Formula One racing.
The FIA has noted a significant increase in illegal streaming of Formula One Racing. This has come to a head with the increasing popularity of a specific streaming channel. One which the FIA claim is hijacking legitimate broadcasts to create their own pirate one. Therefore, as you can expect, the FIA is looking to shut this down. That or find someone they can sue.
In an official statement, the FIA has said: “It has come to our attention that certain Formula 1 content from the 2018 FIA Formula One Championship has been illegally transmitted by the channel known as BeoutQ. Operating primarily within the MENA region. BeoutQ has not acquired any rights from Formula 1. To transmit coverage of the FIA Formula One Championship. Formula 1 takes intellectual property infringement of this nature extremely seriously. We are looking in to the issue and those that are involved and will take appropriate action.”
The FIA is, therefore, clearly very unhappy at the current situation. There may, however, be limits as to what they can do. Why? Well, the illegal broadcaster might have some powerful friends. Ones in very high places!
The specific channel has also been accused of piracy across various other sports. These include; football, boxing, basketball and many others. There are even suggestions that the pirate channel may have links to the Saudi government. With such steams costing these sports millions in lost revenue each year though, finding a solution is clearly a top priority.
What do you think? Is piracy a problem here? Are sports events getting too expensive? In addition, what do you think the solution to this problem is? – Let us know in the comments!
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