I still don't believe internet streaming for subscribed sports is the future. Content right holders are incredibly greedy and will want as much as they can for the service. Can you imagine paying $15 a month for most of the sports that you want to watch? What about if the film companies followed suit and removed content from netflix etc and made you sign up with them to access their studios? I think you would end up paying more for the same content.
The only way is for the content providers to NOT distribute it themselves and rely on resellers such as Sky or PLP and allow full competition and no exclusivity in the market; however the content holders love exclusivity as it drives up the price companies like Sky are willing to pay for premium services.
EDIT: I'll clarify by say Internet Streaming in itself is fine, but I don't see unbundled sports / film as the way forward!
I was just looking for info on the PLP experience when I came across this thread. I realise that the NZ market is limited for this but just wondered by what percentage the population of NZ is likely to swell from the quasi-residents who are likely to sign up from other countries?
I'm another Saints supporter (yes, there's more than one, Handsomedan :) ) and I live about 10 miles away from St Mary's stadium. I spent £1,200 on two season tickets last year but can't justify/afford it this year. So I could wait for the streams to appear on match days but some of these are not only very unreliable but they probably make PLP look like 4K TV :) . One of the other options is to sign up for a service like Al Jazeera Sport or PLP. From the UK forums I've visited, I'd say that there is a reasonable number of others looking at the same options.
From my perspective, it is disappointing that PLP have not opted to go for the quality end of the broadcast experience but, at the end of the day, I want to watch my team play live and I've done that on some really poor streams in the past so PLP probably won't seem too bad. I'd happily pay more for better quality though.
Do you think that external subs will be a significant factor in PLP's success or failure?
One thing a lot of people don't understand is that streaming in the US is only really done by people who live outside the market of the team involved or want to watch more than just their team.
If you live in New York state for instance you cannot watch the New York Yankees on MLBtv or if you live anywhere in the US you cannot watch NFLpass.
PLP might work and it might not but I don't see it causing big changes, not until at least UFB is nationwide. And coupled with that is that a high proportion of people who stream/download do so for free or next to free.
As a Swansea City fan, I’ve signed up for the PLP standard season pass, as this was my only realistic chance of getting to see all/most of our games. Even if Sky or Sommet show delayed (12+ hours) games for Swansea, I’d want not want to wait until Sunday afternoon (for the 3pm Saturday games), to watch.
I don’t see the Platinum pass as worth the cost – hopefully the review on TV One will be similar to the reviews on there, content from PL World is often shown on the PL site in the UK and previews including managers interviews are readily available on the internet, at the end of the week anyway.
My normal viewing for the last 2 years (taking the 3pm Sat games as an example), was – if live on Sky, record it and watch “delayed” as soon as I get up, Sunday morning. To me, this is the same as watching a live broadcast – live or delayed, it still does not stop me shouting at the TV! If Sky broadcast the game delayed, I’d have to find something else to do, but I’d certainly not want to know the score before watching. If Sky did not show it at all, then I’d get up to watch a dodgy stream at 2-4am – hopefully PLP will at least be better that that.
Part of my Sunday ritual would be to watch the game as early as possible and then discuss the game on a Swans forum – if it was delayed until the afternoon, I’d lose that part, as I’d have to hide in my shell, until after I’d seen the game – so, while the quality is not that good, it’s better than nothing – we don’t all support one of the “big” six.
Not sure how the on-demand thing works – I thought it was that all games were live, but only on-demand games were able to be watched “non-live”. So, if Swans v Man Utd (UK Sat 17/8 17:30) was only live, I’d have to watch it live – i.e. starting Sunday 18/8 04:30 – I’d not be able to watch the games from the start at say, 7am – is that right or not?
I would disagree, I'm a born and bred Manc, from the borough of Trafford. Football is almost a religion to me but I refuse to give my money to PLP as they're simply releasing a far inferior product to what we had before and it pains me to do this but I'd rather give my money to sky until PLP sorts itself out and offers more connectivity options and bitrates. Then I might consider them.
Well I suppose as a ManU fan you got to see all your games live on sky. But the smaller teams weren't so lucky. They can now see 38 games live, versus how many on Sky, about 5?
Edit: Would be really interesting to hear from any club fan who wants to take a guess at how many of their games were shown live on Sky last season. State your team obviously.
Last season on Sky, Norwich were live 16 times, delayed 11 times, and not broadcast 11 times. Swansea were also on 27 times, but only 12 of those were live – although, I can’t recall a game being delayed past 08:30.
The season before, Norwich were live 17 times, delayed 8 times, and not on 13 times, while Swansea were 15 live, 15 delayed and 8 not on.
Maybe if we had a Kiwi in our squad - qpr were on 36 times last season and West Ham 35.
Of course, Man Utd/City, Chelski and the Arse were on every game (nearly all live), and loserpool and Spurs 37 times
What do you mean by external subs? If you mean outside NZ then they won't play any part at all as PLP is only allowed to broadcast in NZ.
There are already ways around that. Google around, there's quite a bit of interest in PLP from overseas viewers. When you add the cost of the workaround (US$5 per month) to the NZ$150 per year for PLP, it's a pretty cheap option for anyone wanting to watch the Premier League.
It'd be interesting to find out what the numbers are for these overseas subscribers in relation to the number of local subscribers. From what I have seen, the feed from PLP is better than that of another paid streaming site.
So if they get enough people using VPN's who don't care about the quality then local NZ residents who do will always be shafted.
Yup. That's what I'm afraid of.
For most these overseas subscribers, the PLP stream is a big step up from no coverage/poor free streams. From what I've read online, most (if not all) of these subscribers are happy with the quality of the PLP stream.
I'm not 100% sure what the quality is of the other paid site. Apparently, they will have 'HD' feeds up for the start of the season. I signed up for a month there to compare it with PLP, and what I've seen so far is that PLP is better in terms of stream quality. This could also be a result of my slower broadband speed. Unlike PLP, there isn't an option to use the highest bit rate available.
So if they get enough people using VPN's who don't care about the quality then local NZ residents who do will always be shafted.
Yup. That's what I'm afraid of.
For most these overseas subscribers, the PLP stream is a big step up from no coverage/poor free streams. From what I've read online, most (if not all) of these subscribers are happy with the quality of the PLP stream.
I'm not 100% sure what the quality is of the other paid site. Apparently, they will have 'HD' feeds up for the start of the season. I signed up for a month there to compare it with PLP, and what I've seen so far is that PLP is better in terms of stream quality. This could also be a result of my slower broadband speed. Unlike PLP, there isn't an option to use the highest bit rate available.
It's not so much that I think. It's things like, in the UK, if you want to watch all the EPL games you literally cannot do that legally without subscribing to multiple TV services. You would need BT broadband for the games they bought for their TV service AND Sky satellite for the games they have. So the cost to get EPL as a whole in the UK is huge.
Furthermore, there will be a lot of people in the UK who don't care about any other sport and so being able to get the enitre season of premier league games for only $150 (75 pounds) is an absolute bargain compared to shelling out for 2 x TV packages.
As with NZ, there will be a huge amount of people who are massive football fans but don't currently have HD services (whether because they dont subscribe to Sky HD, or because they dont have an HD TV) and so the quality of this at 3Mbps will be fine for them, assuming that grabbing the stream from NZ isn't a massive issue
I know a lot of my friends in the UK would jump at the chance to grab this for that price, even if the stream is only 3Mbps
NonprayingMantis: It's not so much that I think. It's things like, in the UK, if you want to watch all the EPL games you literally cannot do that legally without subscribing to multiple TV services. You would need BT broadband for the games they bought for their TV service AND Sky satellite for the games they have. So the cost to get EPL as a whole in the UK is huge.
My issue is, they (now) have an option. We don't. It's either 3 Mbps live stream or delayed HD coverage on TV.
Sky wasn't cheap either when you included the HD ticket, MySky rental and sports package, but it was one of the few things I was happy spending my money on. There's no way I can watch a live HD feed even if I am willing to pay for it.
NonprayingMantis: It's not so much that I think. It's things like, in the UK, if you want to watch all the EPL games you literally cannot do that legally without subscribing to multiple TV services. You would need BT broadband for the games they bought for their TV service AND Sky satellite for the games they have. So the cost to get EPL as a whole in the UK is huge.
My issue is, they (now) have an option. We don't. It's either 3 Mbps live stream or delayed HD coverage on TV.
Sky wasn't cheap either when you included the HD ticket, MySky rental and sports package, but it was one of the few things I was happy spending my money on. There's no way I can watch a live HD feed even if I am willing to pay for it.
Aye? Here in New Zealand we have far more options for legally watching EPL.
In the UK with Sky you can get 116 live games, and if you subscribe to BT Sport you can get an extra 38, making a total of 154 live games a season. None of those live games can be at 3pm on a Saturday. In NZ you have the option of getting 380 games live, plus 3 games delayed on FTA TV each round (1 on TVNZ, 2 on Sommet (1 Chelsea, other team I believe is still being negotiated)), and if you have Sky you can get a further 4 games delayed each round.
In the UK, if you don't want Sky, tough luck. You can only watch 38 live games a season IF you subscribe to BT Sport. If you don't want to subscribe to either Sky or BT, tough luck, you can only watch highlights on BBC.
We do have an option, watch live on the Internet with a subscription, get a sky subscription, or don't get any subscription and you'll still get to watch full EPL games.
I maintain this is a good year to be a football fan in NZ.
expression: Aye? Here in New Zealand we have far more options for legally watching EPL.
We do not have the option to a live HD feed legally or not (someone with UFB can try the other paid site to see if it is HD), which we did last season.
Correct me if I'm wrong, in the UK, you can still bypass the 3pm blackout with a dish pointing to the right satellite and a subscription to an overseas provider. To my knowledge, we can't.
I don't care what happens in the UK. My comparison is what was available last year and that was HD coverage conveniently shown on my TV. If I was new to EPL coverage I am sure that I would be stoked with PLP but I'm not!
I was really looking forward to this season with new managers in Manchester and Chelsea, the arse spending money, spurs attempting to beat the arse, Liverpool on the rise... Now, not so much.
MePLUR: You can argue though that we are better off than we were last season because we have more games on offer. Sure, for the portion of Sky users that had MySky the quality is not quiet as good, but there are advantages of this new platform.
Regarding the other site and pointing your dish in a different direction, I was meaning legal methods of watching.
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