"Football's Gone Round the Spend!" screamed The People newspaper one Sunday in July 1995.
asserted
newspaper → go → July
It reported breathlessly that three clubs between them were set to pay out more than £20m on new players.
asserted
clubs → report → players
The highlight that summer was the transfer of Stan Collymore from Nottingham Forest to Liverpool for a British record fee of £8.5m.
That number might not seem too impressive today, in an age when £100m transfers are almost commonplace.
uncertain
transfers → seem → age
But at the time it was seismic stuff, and it symbolised the conversion of football from sport into big business.
asserted
it → symbolise → business
All of this had been made possible in the early 1990s by the creation of the Premier League, and its initial TV deal with the broadcaster Sky, which paid more than £300m for five years of rights.
asserted
which → make → rights
The agreement put live top-tier football behind a TV paywall for the first time.
asserted
agreement → put → time
It was a lucrative model, one that other leading championships in motorsport, rugby, golf and cricket would later seek to replicate.
asserted
championships → lead → motorsport
But now, that model is coming under pressure.
asserted
model → come → pressure
Piracy has become endemic in British sports: around half of sports fans now admit to using what they might euphemistically call "alternative" means to watch paywalled material, according to the consultancy Ampere Analysis.
uncertain
they → become → consultancy
And this summer saw signs of a clampdown.
asserted
summer → see → clampdown
In August, a man in Lancashire was jailed for six and a half years for running an illegal streaming service that police said had generated almost £1m in illicit profits.
asserted
police → jail → profits
In June, a postman from Pembrokeshire was jailed for over three years for selling illegal subscriptions and supplying pirate software to nearly 2,000 people.
asserted
postman → jail → people
A third man, from Merseyside, received a suspended 32-month sentence in August for similar offences.
asserted
man → receive → offences
Several pubs have been fined thousands of pounds for screening matches illegally.
asserted
pubs → fin → matches
TV companies that have paid huge sums for exclusive rights to high-profile sports are having to work harder than ever to protect their investments.
asserted
that → pay → investments
To some extent, broadcasters used to see copyright theft as a cost of doing business: irritating and expensive, but not an existential threat.
asserted
broadcasters → use → business
But now, as advertising revenues fall, and viewers move away from long-term subscription services like Sky or TNT Sports, the industry is getting seriously worried.
asserted
industry → fall → Sky
In its most recent deal, it sold its viewing rights to domestic audiences for £6.7bn over four years, with almost as much coming from foreign rights.
asserted
much → sell → rights
Armed with bundles of TV cash, clubs have been able to attract the finest players in the world.
asserted
clubs → arm → world
That in turn has given the league a major international profile.
asserted
That → give → profile
Although football has been the main beneficiary of paid-for TV in the UK, other competitions such as Formula One, Six Nations rugby and the Wimbledon tennis championships have also commanded very high fees for selling exclusive rights.
asserted
competitions → pay → rights
Live sport on free-to-air television has become increasingly rare.
asserted
sport → become → television
Yet that wealth could be threatened by a surge in piracy and illegal viewing.
uncertain
wealth → threaten → piracy
The practice is most common among younger, digital-native audiences, who each year become a larger and larger share of sports fans.
asserted
who → become → fans
But many older viewers also seem comfortable with it.
asserted
viewers → seem → it
"For 18 to 34-year-olds, it's over 70% who admit to doing this regularly," says Daniel Monaghan, a researcher at Ampere Analysis.
asserted
Monaghan → admit → Analysis
"Over half of 35 to 44s admit to doing it, and about a third of those aged 45 to 64.
asserted
half → admit → those
This year's Champions League final went behind a paywall in the UK for the first time in more than 30 years.
asserted
final → go → years
Viewers were asked to pay at least £4.99 to watch it, prompting a backlash, including from the then-prime minister, Arsenal fan Sir Keir Starmer.
asserted
Viewers → ask → minister
"Hardworking people shouldn't have to fork out for a subscription to watch this match," he wrote on X.
Many simply refused to pay: 3.7 million IP addresses accessed illegal streams of the match in the UK, according to research carried out by the Gaming Compliance International consultancy, on behalf of the Guardian newspaper.
uncertain
addresses → have → newspaper
That compared to around seven million people who watched it legally in the UK.
asserted
who → compare → UK
One prolific user of pirate streams is "Kiran", a tech sector worker in his 30s, who prefers not to give his real name.
asserted
who → prefer → name
A keen Arsenal fan, he likes to watch Premier League and Champions League games, as well as big matches in Spain's La Liga.
asserted
he → like → Liga
He has a paid subscription to TNT Sports, but uses streaming websites to see games that are not available there.
asserted
that → have → games
"What it comes down to is the financial side - that's the big one - and ease of access as well," he says.
asserted
he → come → access
"Getting every single game will cost you hundreds of pounds a year."
asserted
Getting → get → pounds
Meanwhile the streams he uses are free, with links readily obtainable on social media.
asserted
links → use → media
But there's another issue, he says: the famous blackout.
asserted
he → be → ?
Games taking place between 14:45 and 17:15 on a Saturday are not usually screened live in the UK, a decades-old policy designed to protect crowds at lower league matches.
asserted
Games → take → matches
But broadcasters outside the UK can and do show those matches, fuelling pirated streams.
asserted
broadcasters → show → streams
…and 56 more, not listed.
The Aporia
