Background to legal dispute between TalkSport & BBC

[Mandy]

I found this article from 2002. I think the "deal" may have since broken down since recently I heard TalkSport repeat old programs when there was a live sporting event .. or maybe since Sky acquired the rights, that Sky or ITV didn't agree to a similar deal.

I think this "exclusivity" on coverage, e.g. you can't comment on a sport which you legally watch in Amsterdam, is a root cause of the excess seen in footballers due to their too high wages off the back of deals with the likes of Sky or ITV. I have no problem with money earned from advertising. But it is the high TV subscriptions and high entrance fees to matches I think are unfair and anti-competitive.


http://www.havenworks.com/media/archive/index.htm

TalkSport [radio station] brings you the World Cup [soccer games played all around the world] - live from London." ... "The BBC took legal action against TalkSport after it emerged the station was covering matches to which the BBC helds the rights by watching the games on an Amsterdam hotel TV." <p> "A deal was eventually brokered, allowing the commercial radio outfit to commentate on sporting events by describing the action it sees on TV, as long as it frequently makes clear coverage is unofficial." -By Julia Day -MediaGuardian.co.uk

[Brown Sauce]

I listen to radio on the web, as I live in Germany. 5 live hasn't broadcast a live football match for over 5 years via the net internationally. Recently the beeb has used some technology that finds your isp and lets their filter system know that a) you live outside the UK, or b) that you are listening from anything other than a home setup. If you fall into categories a or b, you get a message that says "we don't have the rights to broadcast the present programme over the net", or something like. If you live in the UK you can receive everything over the net.

It has little to do with the bbc, but rather the individual football clubs that are charging money to their supporters for listening to exclusive commentary via their websites over the net, and therefore internationally. For aston villa it's something like 40 quid a year, they can shove it up their arse, and they know full well what I personally think of it.

Talksport - used to say "live unofficial commentary from our monitors in the studio". I think the "unofficial" tag placated those who paid for the rights. But that was still in the days when the football clubs provided a free commentary over the net. Next year they too will be broadcasting live premiereship football, as if there isn't enough already, but that is a separate argument. They too will be allowed to broadcast footie over the web using the same technology as the beeb, I expect. Proxies don't work btw, I've tried and tried and tried ad nausium. If anyone knows a way, let me know ...


Exclusivity, and in particular football, is what drives Sky. Without football exclusivity it would have bit the dust years ago.

So in my opinion it's the internet, and the insatiable greed of the premiership, that has driven this sort of stuff recently not so much the traditional broadcasters.

it is short sighted, when the 4x4 brigade leave the sport that they have all loved since 1996, there will be no youth coming along to fill the seats. I started going to villa park in the early 70's, when the villa were in the old third div, regularly got gates of 30,000, and we had a choice of going to the cinema or the football for the same price, and that included a program.

[Mandy]

Thanks for the info "Brown Sauce".

[faceless]

Sauce, have you tried using a proxy to bypass the checks that stop you hearing? If you want advice on it, post something in the web-media section.

[Brown Sauce]

cheers faceless,