[Albion] Paul Barber on why Saturday's "free" Liefering stream wasn't free for US residents

[AZ Gull]

Paul Barber on why Saturday's "free" Liefering stream wasn't free for US residents

On Saturday morning, sad Albion nerd that I am, I set my alarm for 4:45am in the hope that Albion might provide a stream of the first pre-season runout against FC Liefering (they hadn't made any communication in advance of the fixture). I was therefore pretty happy when I saw this tweet, telling me the match was being streamed "live and free":-

[TWEET]1150011574695989248[/TWEET]

I headed over to the club website - only to be met by a message saying "Video geo-restricted by the owner". There was another message which read "Supporters in the USA and Canada can watch a live stream of today's game by clicking here."

So, I clicked on that link and got taken to a "FloSports" website. I found the Albion v Liefering listing and clicked - this prompted a screen which informed me that I needed to subscribe, for $30 a month or $12.49 a month for a year's subscription. Eventually I had to accept that the "free" stream would actually cost $30, so I grumpily slouched back to bed.

Later that day I e-mailed Paul Barber to get an explanation of what was going on here, and to understand why I and other North American-based fans were being offered (in my view) an inferior experience compared to the many hundreds of you who were happily watching the stream.

This is the reply I received:-

As part of the match agreement between the two clubs playing in the match yesterday, the television rights were sold in the US and Canada, therefore the club was not permitted to stream the match in this territory.

In the regions where the rights remained available to us we were able to show the match free via an internet stream.

For our remaining pre-season matches, we will publish when and where streams will be available via details on the club’s website.

Thank you for your support for the club.

So, it sounds as though this type of situation will re-occur in future. As a follow up, I requested that the club at least publicise the arrangements the day before the match (so that other people don't "enjoy" my experience on Saturday morning). Barber's response:-

...In our days as a League One and even Championship club, we did not typically receive much or anything in the way of match fees or expenses – and there was no market for our TV rights! As a Premier League club, interest and therefore demand is higher but territories will always vary match to match and will typically depend on what other sports content is available in those places.

For Saturday’s game, our agency were able to sell in to North America. As in the case of this one, deals like this can be done very late indeed so I’m afraid it isn’t and won’t be possible to meet your request for details to be provided “at least one day prior to the match”. We will however always do our best to ensure our fans are aware of where and when pre-season games can be screened. ..

I've posted this as I thought my fellow North American-based fans deserved to have an explanation for why Saturday's match was (and, in all likelihood, numerous pre-season friendlies in future will be) advertised by the club as having a stream "live and free!", only to ultimately discover that the stream costs $30 (even though the club will not have the decency to explicitly declare that on social media or their website).

 

[Sussex Nomad]

VPN, simple.

 

[BNthree]

Whilst it much have been frustrating for you AZ it is pretty mental there is a market to watch the Albion play a friendly against a 2nd division Austrian side at silly oclock in the morning!

 

[Brian Munich]

#PrayForAZ

 

[Whitechapel]

Whilst it much have been frustrating for you AZ it is pretty mental there is a market to watch the Albion play a friendly against a 2nd division Austrian side at silly oclock in the morning!

I’d agree if I hadn’t found myself betting on Albanian second division football before.

 

[studio150]

I wonder what the viewing figures were for the game in North America.

Maybe with the ability to sell TV rights to North America we may be tempted to undertake a pre-season tour there next year, to further boost our profile and potential revenue income

 

[beorhthelm]

seems a funny way to carry on a business, how are your market supposed to buy the pay for service if you dont know in advance its available?

 

[nwgull]

seems a funny way to carry on a business, how are your market supposed to buy the pay for service if you dont know in advance its available?

Once a team, or teams, have sold the rights to the game, it’s up to the purchaser of the product to market it.

 

[Shuggie]

- Barber’s a weasel - easy to tell he has worked over here in the land of never wrong

- VPN is only solution, especially if you can get some tech guys to set you one up back home so you don’t get so easily picked up as using a VPN service (BBC annoyingly tech-savvy in this regard)

- AZ’s ferocious attention to detail, encyclopaedic knowledge of everything BHA and selfless service to the NSC community warrant a free set up behind the scenes by the local SturmbahngruppenBozza

 

[Normal Rob]

I've posted this as I thought my fellow North American-based fans deserved to have an explanation for why Saturday's match was (and, in all likelihood, numerous pre-season friendlies in future will be) advertised by the club as having a stream "live and free!", only to ultimately discover that the stream costs $30 (even though the club will not have the decency to explicitly declare that on social media or their website).

Thank goodness. For a moment I thought you just wanted a moan.

 

[Bozza]

Easy to bypass with a VPN service for considerably less than that, and you'll probably find one that will do the job for free.

I appreciate that's not your point, and I'm with you on that.

It does seem strange that the club could have made a few quid out of UK fans, but didn't, but tried to make money out of fans in other territories instead.

 

[AZ Gull]

Well, Mr Barber isn't prepared to tell fans in advance which pre-season matches are likely to be affected, but I am - the same situation will apply for the Crawley Town friendly on Friday; the only question for you UK-based fans is whether the club will offer you a free stream:-

 

[Djmiles]

Was hoping to watch bits of at least one friendly. Oh well.

Clearly USA and Canada (400m people) isn’t a big enough market!

 

[nwgull]

Was hoping to watch bits of at least one friendly. Oh well.

Clearly USA and Canada (400m people) isn’t a big enough market!

Clearly it is, seeing as a Canadian/US company has bought the broadcasting rights!

 

[luppers]

I got it OK here in Turkey

 

[timbha]

I got it OK here in Turkey

surely you can find something to have a moan at Barber about - the non Turkish commentary perhaps

 

[AZ Gull]

So, I have just received another e-mail from Mr Barber. Here it is in it's entirety (with only my name removed):-

I understand that you chose to edit my responses to you regarding how and why the club sells broadcast rights to overseas friendlies and have posted them on social media.

It might be more useful to fellow fans - and fairer to the club perhaps? - to provide the entire context for the responses you have received from the club.

We have no problem with our responses to
private emails being shared on social media (without our permission) provided they are not edited and lack the necessary context.

As with tonight, such a practice simply leads to confusion and more questions being posed from other fans to which we have already provided you with the answers.

If you would prefer, I can ask our communications team to publish both your original messages and my responses in full on social media. We’d be happy to do so.

Please let me know.

Best wishes, Paul

With apologies to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION], then, I feel have I little alternative but to reproduce here the full e-mail correspondence up to this point.

My opening e-mail:-

Dear Mr Barber

I am a long-time supporter of Brighton and Hove Albion and a former season ticket holder (before I moved out to the west coast of the United States a number of years ago). I am also a MyAlbion+ member.

I set my alarm for 4:45am on Saturday morning in the hope that the club might be streaming the first pre-season runout against FC Liefering. I was therefore very pleased to see the club tweet that confirmed the match was to be streamed free.

However, on going to the club website I discovered a message saying the match had been "geo-restricted". There was a link for viewers living in Canada or the United States that took me to the FloSports website which wanted to charge me $30 per month (or $12.49 per month for a 12-month commitment). Needless to say I wasn't prepared to pay this fee and returned to my bed somewhat disgruntled.

What is the club's thinking in charging a fee for the club's supporters based in certain countries, when other supporters get to watch the match for free? How do you condone such discrimination? And, will this be repeated for other pre-season friendlies this summer?

I kook forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter,

Yours sincerely

This was the first reply from Mr Barber:-

Dear Mr X

Thank you for your email.

First of all, we don’t “discriminate” against any fans!

As part of the match agreement between the two clubs playing in the match yesterday, the television rights were sold in the US and Canada, therefore the club was not permitted to stream the match in this territory.

In the regions where the rights remained available to us we were able to show the match free via an internet stream.

For our remaining pre-season matches, we will publish when and where streams will be available via details on the club’s website.

Thank you for your support for the club.


Best wishes, Paul

I then responded with this:-

Dear Mr Barber

Thank you for your response, and I do appreciate you replying at the weekend.

It sounds as though this type of situation may well occur again, either this season or in the future. While I am disappointed that the club is choosing to diminish the experience of the North American customer base (compared to other Albion customers), I would strongly request that the club clearly publishes the stream availability (and relevant cost, if any) AT LEAST one day prior to the match, in order to prevent the frustration I felt this Saturday.

Finally, do I have your permission to paste the content of your reply on North Stand Chat? I am sure there are other US/Canadian based fans that would like to have this information.

Yours sincerely

And then I received this second reply from Mr Barber:-

Dear Mr X

Thank you for your further email.

Once again, the club is not “choosing to diminish the experience of the North American customer base”!

It is entirely normal for a club to secure rights to broadcast an overseas friendly back to its own country free of charge, while selling TV rights to other countries leading to internet rights being geo-blocked in any countries that have purchased TV rights to the game – again this is quite normal. Sometimes, it will be the host club that sells those overseas rights leaving their visitors (us) with just their own rights.

I think it’s important to remember that football clubs are businesses – even in pre-season! The football club board’s mandate is for our commercial staff to increase revenues and cover our costs at all times to ensure the club’s long term sustainability – rather than rely on Tony’s Bloom’s continued generosity. This is the same in pre-season as it is for the season. And, as previously advised, we don’t discriminate between fans!

Pre-season tours and preparations are very expensive. Not all of our games are open to fans – and not all will be available for broadcast, either free or behind a pay wall. It is therefore entirely normal for a professional football club to look to monetise the matches that are open to fans during pre-season. Like most, if not all, clubs when we play away from home (abroad or even in the UK) in pre-season we will typically create a commercial model by negotiating to:

receive match fees and/or expenses for our visit
receive or share gate receipts
secure and sell TV/internet rights if and where a market exists (from the host club sometimes in lieu of not receiving a match fee or share of gate receipts)
appoint an agency to sell TV/internet rights (having secured the rights for the reasons described above)
secure a live feed for UK viewers if a TV production is being mounted by the home club (and rights aren’t available to us to sell)
have our live TV production costs covered if we have to arrange a feed for our own broadcast (sometimes in lieu of the agency concerned selling overseas TV rights)
utilise a combination of some or all of these things to make our friendly matches more viable


In the case of home friendly matches, we will typically be the ones paying a match fee and expenses to our visitors, so gate receipts, hospitality revenues and merchandise sales, and selling TV rights - if and where a market exists and if we decide to mount a live TV production – will be our typical revenue streams.

In our days as a League One and even Championship club, we did not typically receive much or anything in the way of match fees or expenses – and there was no market for our TV rights! As a Premier League club, interest and therefore demand is higher but territories will always vary match to match and will typically depend on what other sports content is available in those places.

For Saturday’s game, our agency were able to sell in to North America. As in the case of this one, deals like this can be done very late indeed so I’m afraid it isn’t and won’t be possible to meet your request for details to be provided “at least one day prior to the match”. We will however always do our best to ensure our fans are aware of where and when pre-season games can be screened.

I hope this provides you with enough detail to help you understand how our business works during pre-season.


Best wishes, Paul

So, there you have it.

 

[Beanstalk]

So, I have just received another e-mail from Mr Barber. Here it is in it's entirety (with only my name removed):-



With apologies to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION], then, I feel have I little alternative but to reproduce here the full e-mail correspondence up to this point.

My opening e-mail:-



This was the first reply from Mr Barber:-




I then responded with this:-



And then I received this second reply from Mr Barber:-



So, there you have it.

Fair enough really isn't it? Club aim to sell rights to all games essentially - it's how we make most of our money. Nobody wanted to broadcast an Austrian second tier team in the UK so the club did the nice thing of making it free to watch. In the US someone was willing to pay money to broadcast the game, fab. Blame really lies with an over saturated sports subscription market in the US that literally has a channel that broadcasts sport nobody else wants to.

Obviously a bit annoying you can't just log on and watch but I would point you in this direction https://windscribe.com/. 10GB free that in my experience will allow you to watch every MOTD on catch up plus a couple of live games. I doubt the club are tracking IP addresses of VPNs and blocking them so should get you the Crawley game at least and is really not any hassle at all.

 

[PoG]

VPN, simple.

Mods please lock the tread we have a winner.

 

[AZ Gull]

Fair enough really isn't it?

I am realistic enough to understand that the club is now a large corporate entity with multiple tens of millions in revenue. I have no problem with the club selling the rights (in the territory I happen to live) to pre-season friendly matches. But as they ARE now a large corporate entity, I will expect them to act like one in all regards.

They have essentially misrepresented to me the service they are offering (or not offering). They published on social media that I could watch a stream for free. When I went to their website, they then directed me elsewhere, with no mention of any fee being payable. It was only then that I was left to discover that I had to pay $30 for the "free" product.

Just imagine a shop where you spend a lot of money, advertises on social media that they are offering a product you desire for free. You get up early and stand in line, seeing many other customers receive their free product. You get to the till...and are asked where you live. You are surprised, but tell them; they ask you to join a second line. When you get to the front of that line, you are told you actually have to pay £20 for the "free" product, because they subcontracted (for a fee) with another entity the rights to deal with customers from your town. Would you feel "yeah, fair enough really", or would you feel they had stitched you up?

The club has previous form for this sort of thing: at the start of the 2017-18 season they marketed a subscription to Seagulls TV with the explicit statement that "Seagulls TV will also screen live coverage and highlights of selected under-23 Premier League 2, Women's Super League and FA Youth Cup fixtures" - and then they didn't screen live coverage of any U-23 or FA Youth Cup matches that season.

So no, I don't think it is "fair enough really".