England footy web broadcaster to monitor customers
9 October, 2009
Perform says it will keep an eye on IP address to check rules are not being broken over commercial broadcasting
The internet company broadcasting England’s match against Ukraine tomorrow has warned it will be checking whether customers are using the stream for residential or business use.
Pubs will not be visited for checks, but web outfit Perform said it will centrally monitor the IP address – a unique number that every computer connected to the internet has – of customers.
Licensees are unable to show the World Cup qualifier because Perform says the game must not be screened for “any commercial purposes whatsoever”.
The only exception is Odeon cinemas, which won the right to screen the game at its venues.
Andrew Croker, Perform’s executive chairman, said: “There is no manual policing for this match but we are policing by monitoring the IP address to establish whether the stream is for customer/residential or business use.”
Asked why pubs could not show the game, he said: “The existing infrastructure in pubs is not compatible with an internet broadcast.
“We looked into the option of streaming into pubs but decided that this is not currently viable.”
Fans wanting the game were being charged £4.99 earlier this week, but will have to pay £11.99 if they leave it until tomorrow.
Some England followers have reportedly not been happy that the game was internet-only.
But Croker said: “We are very encouraged by the response of the England fans to our offering.
“Cleary there is a desire to watch the newly qualified England team in competitive action and furthermore there is a lot of support for our pioneering venture.”
The match will be shown at www.ukrainevengland.com.
Readers' comments
Why worry the connection was rubbish anyway,most if not all missed the first goal and it stuttered lots of time,as i thought it would,i would like to know how they could possibly know a publican was showing the match in the bar area,many publicans have broadband in their homes,for their own use ,it will be many.years before the tec gets good enough for mass showing
What a load of rubbish. its not hard to find a server with wireless connection. use a somebodys elses laptop and how would they know!! live football should never be prodcast on the internet only. if this was a must game for england sky would have snapped it up in a second. as it happened england didnt win
Possibly what the guy meant by infrastructure was that picture quality will probably be poor. Example: stretching an image designed for a small screen onto a much larger screen. With regards IP addresses I believe anyone can acquire proxy IP addresses so you could be in London watching it whilst snoopers think you're in Sheffield. Perry Mayer, Managing Director, Pub and Bar Network
How do they come to the conclusion that the infastructure is not there? Most Plasma and LCD TV's now have a pc in connection, as do most modern projectors. All you have to do is connect a laptop to them.
I bet I am not the only pub that has a domestic broadband package so checking my IP address wouldn't indicate that it can be used in the pub. We also have public access wi-fi coverage available to anyone subscribed to the same ISP as I am. If someone brings a laptop into the pub tomorrow what they do on it is between them and their ISP.
We offer free wi-fi in our pub to customers... if they purchase their own license to watch the match but then bring their laptop to the pub to watch it whilst having a pint with a few mates, are we breaking the law?