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My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

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Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#191

Post by scyzoryk_xyz »

distances wrote: post #124
dabeeeenster wrote: post #65

Related (7 years ago): https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/8q1j0o/la_liga_uses... - Bars, pubs and other public establishments have to pay around 200€/month in order to show football on their TVs while the household package goes between 10 and 30€/month. - The official app, with over 10 million downloads, asks you for microphone and GPS permissions. - La Liga remotely activates the microphone and tries to detect…

> - Bars, pubs and other public establishments have to pay around 200€/month in order to show football on their TVs while the household package goes between 10 and 30€/month. This is common in Europe in general, also for copyrighted music. If your establishment wants to play recorded music, even just playing the radio or Spotify on the background, a copyright royalty fee has to be paid. Applies to all venues and even…

It's not the same everywhere in the EU, but here in Poland as an establishment owner you have to pay this fee to an agency that purports to represent the musicians. As you describe eg. Spotify in background.

This agency pays out proportionately to registered licensed musicians, but the proportions are calculated in some ridiculous way that doesn't really factor in who's music is played. It means that the only folks who get reasonable payouts from this agency are, like, stars and old hits authors. The ones who's music gets played a lot in radio and other places. Winners take all.

The reality is that a lot of that cash is really for some chums who's job it is to be controllers.

AFAIK the entire scheme is a result of that one and only legacy industry that needs to protect it's interests: football and sports in venues, and maybe music clubs. In practice it means you rarely see TVs in bars the way you do in the US.

Idk it's a shitty concept imho.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#192

Post by codedokode »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #11
Lucasoato wrote: post #5

In Italy something similar is happening: they have split the football game rights among different competitors, so that if you want to watch every game you have to spend >100€ monthly (that's very high for our economy). To this, add the facts that there has been a major hit to illegal streaming piracy and that football games are getting extremely boring in our country (compared to the Premier League or our Serie A of…

So it looks like a self resolving problem? As a bonus football hooligans and football vandalism will disappear, and hopefully kids will be encouraged to do more creative activities than kicking a ball.

Kicking a ball is fun though. However I am not interested in watching pros kicking a ball.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#193

Post by mcbridematt »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #169
piltdownman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the bar pays something like 10x the price of a normal subscription to be able to publicly show live Sports as a draw for their customers. In UK/Ireland you can easily identify if the venue in question is paying for the commercial package as it will intermittently display a pint glass symbol in a bottom corner of the screen. Indeed, Sky investigators, who do spot checks, use it to quickly ensure that the pub has a…

>In UK/Ireland you can easily identify if the venue in question is paying for the commercial package as it will intermittently display a pint glass symbol in a bottom corner of the screen. Indeed, Sky investigators, who do spot checks, use it to quickly ensure that the pub has a valid pub contract and not a residential contract. That seems as if it would be so easy to fake...

Aside from the changing pint glass color and level, the Sky set top box / decoder, will also overlay the subscription ID at random intervals and locations.

I don't know if Sky does it, but Foxtel in Australia, in addition to the pint glass watermark, have a separate set of channels for public venues, which have different ad breaks/content to residential subscriptions. (https://www.foxtelmedia.com.au/foxtel-media-network/fox-venu...)

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#194

Post by qingcharles »

bluecalm wrote: post #162
gloosx wrote: post #83

Football is wild. Imagine countries and governments collect taxes. Then they use the taxes to buy petroleum products from Qatar. Then Qatar spends €262 millions on a single football player and gazillions on a European club, which is at €889 million loss over the last five years In the end, who is paying for it all? Ordinary people ultimately foot the bill – whether through higher energy prices, taxes, or the opportun…

Sounds like a good deal for Europeans and a terrible for Qataris. Europeans get the oil, Qataris get to brand football stars and make decisions at some clubs.

A lot of what Qatar does is a branding exercise, though. They are awash with cash and are trying to improve their image on the world stage through whatever means possible to them. They bought Harrod's for the lulz basically. I doubt you would find a single native Qatari that would complain, though.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#195

Post by next_xibalba »

DangitBobby wrote: post #179
next_xibalba wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would never agree to this. But it doesn't strike me as particularly unethical, either. So long as both parties understand what they're agreeing to, this seems perfectly fine. If, for example, the NFL ever did this, I would just not watch.

And this is how free markets result in dystopia.

Yes, regulation, with its whole screen occupying cookie permission modals is truly the way. Or, even better, collectivism-under which we’re all so poor there are no professional sports!

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#196

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

And this,people, it's insane. Rome would get entirely stuck during soccer matches and they found a way to make the same happen on the Internet in Spain. Italy will follow.

As an Italian who hated soccer and all the toxicity around it, this is a nightmare.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#198

Post by DangitBobby »

next_xibalba wrote: post #195
DangitBobby wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is how free markets result in dystopia.

Yes, regulation, with its whole screen occupying cookie permission modals is truly the way. Or, even better, collectivism-under which we’re all so poor there are no professional sports!

I mean, cookie permission modals are annoying but it's not exactly The Jungle out here.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#199

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

smelendez wrote: post #184
fragmede wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it cost more less time/effort for the bar to fake it though? The price of 200€/month above seems low enough to just pay it.

I think that's it. I assume the pint glass pops up at intervals that the investigators would know and the general public would not, so you'd need some kind of central service with someone watching the commercial stream and showing/hiding the pint glass at the right intervals. In which case it would make more sense to operate a central service just pirating the commercial stream, which I'm sure does happen and does ge…

>I assume the pint glass pops up at intervals that the investigators would know and the general public would not,

This would be the smart way to do it. But now think about how you'd do it the lazy way...

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#200

Post by gloosx »

fluoridation wrote: post #185
gloosx wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is how it circulates. If €200M goes into a transfer fee, it is locked into a prestige loop instead of funding productive investment, it gets trapped in a cycle that reinforces inequality and produces very little outside of image-building. The recipients of this money are a tiny elite which they then spend mostly in elite consumption loops: luxury real estate, yachts, exclusive services, tax havens. Speaking…

>luxury real estate, yachts, exclusive services, tax havens All of that eventually has to flow back into, as you'd put it, non-elite segments of the economy. What, do you think shipyard workers eat yatchs? There's no subnetwork in the economy where money flows in and never comes back out. That just doesn't exist.

"money always comes back" view is too simplistic. Value can absolutely be destroyed or locked away:

Build a $2M missile -> launch -> it explodes. The workers get wages, sure, but the capital value is literally blown up. No ongoing benefit to the wider economy.

Stadiums for Olympics/World Cups -> billions spent -> used for 2 weeks -> abandoned. Money circulates in construction wages, but the asset sits idle, draining maintenance costs.

Buy a $450M painting -> store it in a tax-free warehouse -> never seen, never sold for decades. That capital is locked — the flow stops until resale.

So yes, wages circulate. But the end product can be waste, destruction, or dead capital. That is the difference between circulation and productive reinvestment.

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