Two more Everton games on subscription TV

How greedy are Sky and BT?

Not only do subscribers have to pay extra to have the sports, but are getting hit again to watch what they CAN'T go to watch live! Then there's the Boxing, when there's a Big Fight on, hit them for £30/20 a go.

I recall a statement no so long ago that every match would be made available during the lockdown, and fair enough they have delivered on that one, but to start charging extra?

The other thing that grinds my gears (sorry Peter Griffin) is not only are people paying twice, but they are also milking the revenue from advertising, of which they are crammed in to every available bit of non-match coverage.

I'm so glad that I have IPTV so although I get the ads, I also have the mute button for them, but I don't have to pay them at Sky or BT.

Consider the alternative.

Here in Australia the AFL Grand Final is shown only on free-to-air TV. Every other game of the season is shown live, in HD, on FOXTEL.

On Grand Final day, the culmination of the season... a public holiday, no less, we can only watch the game on free-to-air TV that make their money by showing adverts during the game. 19 goals this year (reasonably low) and after every one it cuts to an ad.

Add to that the fact that they only broadcast in HD on certain platforms – it's a pretty underwhelming experience.

Sounds like I need to look at IPTV, Derek, although if they're providing you with Sky Sports and BT Sport at no charge, then you are in effect robbing them of their rightful income. Not sure that constitutes 'greed' on their part or illegal behaviour on yours!

I don't like the idea of having to pay extra for the PPV games but, if I have already forked out for Sky Sports and BT Subscriptions, them taking up these games to show live means I don't have to fork out extra for Pay-Per-View.

In this instance, I see it as 'saving' me £30. Not sure that makes me greedy, but so be it. With you on the ads, though. At least we can record most things and speed through them. But they will soon use technology to stop that, a la YouTube, I suspect.

No, I'm not defending Sky or BT, having cancelled my Sky subscription some while ago and watching their games on Now TV instead, but I think it's important to pass on something that I read this morning.

Sky and BT are not making any profit from the "extra" televised games, instead passing on the revenues directly to the clubs concerned to compensate for loss of match day income. Puts things in a slightly different light I think. Don't know whether it's 100% factually correct though.

Mike, wouldn't it be really good if a poster who knows the ins and outs of IPTV... gave the rest of us some top info on it?

I stopped subscribing to BT and Sky Sports about a year ago now... they were two bills that I could do without. But I am fascinated by streaming live footy but I haven't got a clue which gear to buy, and then set up.

Michael @ 5, there's no clandestine secrecy or whatever involved, I have learned the hard way if you like. I started with a Firestick, then progressed to Android Box, Firesticks are brilliant for a small device, but are limited in terms of available storage and Memory.

I now have a MAG Box which I find is the best of the lot, and is not as programmable as Firestick or Android, but you subscribe to an IPTV source, insert that particular URL in and all the hard work is already done. On my MAG Box I have two Portals and subscribe to 2 different providers so between the 2 I have virtually everything, and access to TV from all round the World.

The only limitation is that you must have a fairly decent steady Broadband Signal and not with BT or Sky as they may block a lot of the content. Again I have tried several, but found for my area, EE has proved to be the best for me. If you need any more info, YouTube pretty much covers all aspects and that is how I learned all about what and why and wherefore. Hope that helps.

Derek, I too have got a MAG box, which until recently, was working fine. We also get our broadband from Virgin, and it appears they have now put a block on the MAG box as we can no longer use the box.

Rob. VPN. 🤫

I'll bet Derek Knox was the go-to guy when you bought a flat pack chest of drawers from MFI.

I read post 6, DK... and it was like double Dutch to me. Maybe I can get VVD to translate given he's got fuck all else to do for the foreseeable.

Brian, a VPN will only work on Firestick or Android, as the MAG Box is basically non-user-programmable apart from inserting provider URL, everything is done at the provider's end which is easier really.

Rob, get in touch with me through Peter, Keith, Andy, Paul T or Mike G. I may have a solution for you, don't throw the MAG Box away, it's not at fault. 👍

This is a reply to me, on the same topic, by a relative who is an IT geek. I don't subscribe to anything but this person can take over my TV so I can see all Everton games free. I don't know how legal this is (so no names) but don't give a hoot.

"Yes, with Optus Sports. All 380 Premier League games, Champions League, Europa League etc. A$15 per month or A$139 for the season (they had a special offer last month of A$99). There's a growing number of people signing up from the UK now too and watching via VPN. My favourite alternatives are S-Sport from Turkey which is less £2 a month for all games and better still Idman TV from Azerbaijan which is absolutely free. None of the above are pirate. They're all official rights holders of the Premier League."

Ray #4 I'm sure Sky and BT benefit from selling advertising slots.

Cheers Derek. I will contact Keith.

Bill @ 11,

The last time I checked on the legality aspect, and this has been challenged twice, as far as I know, through the US Government. There have been petitions signed by literally thousands advocating that the Internet and its content is basically a public domain, which has never been refuted by those in power. So why should certain companies have the monopoly?

The other side of the coin as regards watching 'Live Football' – it is circumvented by not actually being 'live' – it is usually roughly a 2-minute delay, so not infringing live broadcast rights.

The only very small drawback, if you can call it that, is if you are on the Live Forum it can be a spoiler when someone types 'GOAL' and the stream hasn't kicked off yet, or the action hasn't happened! 🤦‍♂️

From the times of the matches, these won't be PPV games, so there is no double charge. These were games that wouldn't have been broadcast live had supporters been allowed back into the grounds, so for me, the broadcasters are doing me a favour.

I suppose if I were under tier 3 conditions then I would be pissed off because they can't now just go to the pub to watch it.

Of course, it costs money to produce good quality content for broadcast so the idea that everything on the internet should be free is laughable. The stuff that is ‘free' comes with data harvesting and invasive advertising.

I think Now TV is owned by Sky and those who are legally broadcasting the Sky or BT images / programmes on the internet will be paying them something for the privilege.

Derek #13

I'd always wondered why the TV was a couple of minutes behind my radios (I have vintage 70+ year old valve sets as well as modern DAB ones).

I have the radio sound on and the TV pictures so know if a free kick or corner will come to anything. I've often thought of calling Carlo warning him if we're about to concede but I don't think it quite works that way!

I hate watching/listening to games and find it much less stressful, and more enjoyable, actually being there. My targets are constantly being revised. First, it was to hang on long enough to see us play at Bramley-Moore Dock, then that was downgraded to at least seeing building work start. Now it's just to see another game at Goodison!

I don't bother trying to watch any game live or after the event... I am happy to just read ToffeeWeb.

I don't even bother reading the match report... just the bipolar views of all the comments...

Now that's entertainment!

It's an interesting field of discussion. I pay NZ$25 a month for the legitimate streaming service here in NZ Spark Sport. I watch the Premier League, NFL and some cricket and F1 so it's a reasonable deal for me. I expect with a VPN you could sign up from the UK as well.

A lad I know has IPTV. He pays €10, or around NZ$19 a month. I've watched games at his place and it's a good setup. He has a smart TV so it literally works through an app on the television itself – no MAG box required – and is quite good. If he doesn't like the commentary in a given game, he'll find a different channel in his package showing the game and watch that which is a neat feature.

@ Derek Knox – apparently a smart DNS may be all you need to obfuscate your ISP and prevent them from blocking you. Some legit offer ones free trials as well, I used one once to check out American Netflix from here in New Zealand a while ago.

Your router, unless it's essentially junk, should also support a VPN from firmware. By connecting to the VPN through the router, you negate the issue of the MAG box having no VPN functionality.

I watched the Chester v Marine FA Cup tie yesterday on a stream made available by Chester fans. I paid £5.99 which I understand was split between the two clubs, so I thought that was very reasonable. The figure in the top corner read 890, I assume that was the number watching, if so would be be a useful boost for the finances.

The commentary was by two Chester supporters, so was slightly slanted in their favour, but they were also complimentary and gracious towards their opponents.

There were no replays of any of the action, and no VAR. There were two key, controversial moments which decided the game, they were determined once by the referee, the other by a linesman. And there was no hysteria around those decisions.

It was all quite refreshing.

@ Derek Moore... Sparksport is great getting slightly wary of them adding in sports to watch and increasing the fee regularly. I couldn't care less about the other sports which is a bit galling when they are the reason for the increase. I do miss Beinsports a bit and the wall to wall coverage but frankly I would watch anything this season the way we are going...really playing havoc with my sleep patterns.

Stop it Peter, it’s enough to make my heart go whoa! How did your team get on mate?

I hear you Steve. If our UK cousins can subscribe to Optus in Australia it should be possible for us across the ditch as well?
My brother lives in oz now and has Optus, you only get the Premier league and champions league though. It's NZ$16 a month.
I actually am going to send him a message and I'll see if his login works here. I can't see why it wouldn't.

Hi Tony. I mentioned the result (0-1 to Marine) on the Southampton pre-match thread, but the posts about it have been edited out, I guess because they were deflecting from the topic of our match today.

My apologies for the editors for that, I know you like to keep a tidy site.