Pirates!!! ARG!!!

I came across an interesting post by the senior soccer writer at Fox Sports, Jamie Trecker. He ran over the problem broadcast companies and league officials are having with pirated material such as games and other stuff. I found this a post by Guardian, covering the story called, Premier League goes to war on piracy.

"Sporting authorities are terrified of following the path of the music industry, which saw its business model collapse after it failed to combat digital piracy. The league made £625m from its overseas rights deals last time around and a total of £2.7bn overall, and is banking on another increase after 2010 to compensate for a potential dip in domestic income."

Okay, here's the beef I have with this whole thing. Look at the money (that symbol is for pounds by the way). The league made 2.7 billion pounds (3.7 billion US) with plans to increase? Give me a break. They want to do what the music industry didn't? The music industry did it to themselves. Charging 25 bucks for a stupid CD that didn't even cost 1 buck to make. Yeah you can argue the fact that they had to pay for all the equipment and the big building and pay the artist and so on. I'm not buying it. Think about it (simple math) 25 bucks for a CD, they sell 1 million CD's, 25 million they just made, not including everything else they get through that contract they have with the artist. No wonder everyone started downloading and sharing music. That's the great thing about human nature, we don't like to be taken advantage of. When figure it out, what happens, we take care of it the best way we know how... PAYBACK!!

Jamie brings up a great point in his post:
"Some musicians have released entire albums to supposed “pirate sites” (Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are two of the bigger names) knowing that they can make up the money with concerts and merchandise. The pirates are only too happy to comply and they go on to tell their pals how “cool” the company is, and how people should support them. In the end, by many accounts, comic and music piracy has actually led to increased sales. An intriguing study last month showed that the top bootlegged movies… were also the highest grossing and most seen. In other words, the people downloading your films are also going out and buying them, and seeing them in the theatre multiple times!"


Here's the deal. These officials just need to realize three things.
One: Times are changing. They need to get off their high horses and figure out a way to use this online world to their advantage.
Two: If you think you can control what matches people get to see on TV so that you can sell some tickets, your are living in a fantasy world. If you don't televise a match that people want to see, they're going to find a way to watch it.
And Three: The more eyes you have on the matches (TV, in person, or online), the more money your going to make in the long run. Just because your not selling a ticket to put a butt in the seat, doesn't mean your not going to sell a jersey, poster, or some other club product.