Ship Ahoy! - Watching The Arsenal Pirate Style

This article had appeared in the September 2009 edition of the Gooner Magazine

http://www.onlinegooner.com/covers/index.php?id=198

I can still remember it clearly today, over a decade later. When sneaking into an almost empty Walthamstow pub with the intention to borrow the little boy’s room without arousing the attention the establishment to the fact that I was not a paying customer. It had been around 4.15PM on a Saturday afternoon and on the big screen had been Leicester City v Liverpool live and exclusive with the soundtrack of a foreign commentator. As if by magic, a Saturday afternoon football broadcast from an English football ground that had not been via Radio commentary or a report from Grandstand, explaining to those of us not fortunate enough to be present what we could only dream of seeing unfold before our very eyes. A window into a whole new world, meaning we no longer had to wait until 10.30PM to be able to view what actually was the Match of the Day.

It’s nearly a quarter of a century ago that I first began to attend Arsenal matches with my father, on the long trip up via train and tube from the Essex sticks. This had been a joy rationed to only four or five times a season for me, however from a young age I had vowed that once I had a disposable income of my own I too shall hold my own season ticket and be regular face on the North Bank. In the years since I first gained an income in the late 90s a combination of unprecedented demand, an extensive waiting list and a 600% increase in the cheapest season ticket meant that such a dream never came to pass. However my wish to view every second of the season in an environment of free expression within reasonable means has been a privilege enjoyed for several years now.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Chips Keswick, member of the Arsenal board and officially the world’s poshest man. He had asked me how often I managed to obtain tickets for the E******s Stadium. I had answered with candour that I manage to get tickets around four or five times a season, yet watched live every other game of the season illegally on foreign satellite in the surrounding areas of North London if it wasn’t available on Sky. While remaining his polite self, from his expression I had noticed that I had dropped a major faux pas in revealing something I really should have kept to myself. He had looked to circulate elsewhere in the room, said it had been nice talking to one and advised me to subscribe to the then fledgling, now defunct Setanta and particularly Arsenal TV, then moved on.

Sir Chips Keswick: Wrong about Setanta

While the premiership has looked to increase its revenue over the last 17 years, those priced out of the match day experience in the years since have sought ever more ways to recapture that lost joy. The situation has since come to pass that almost all premiership matches on any given Saturday are shown live by satellite stations with a reception within reach of the UK. Reminiscent of the early days of rock n roll when a shortfall in coverage from indigenous broadcasters brought the birth of offshore pirate radio to quench the thirst of a national obsession, there has been a similar modern day realisation of how broadcasting technology rarely ever respects national boundaries.

To accompany foreign satellite television has also come live streaming of overseas coverage via the net (http://www.justin.tv/directory/sports), however like the similar predicament of 60s youth losing Radio Caroline’s signal to the sound of static, there too is the same frustration of losing the stream mid-match and the frantic search to find another before missing anything vital. The perfect remedy for guaranteeing full pirate coverage of the Arsenal without the irritation of constantly losing the stream, or arriving in a pub showing another side at 3PM is acquiring the knowledge of which pubs around North London guarantee coverage of the Arsenal on a Saturday afternoon, however if you are wishing me to enlighten you here and now as to where then you will be disappointed. After all, in the words of a quote from a famous cult movie “rule number one of fight club is that we do not talk about fight club”.

The legitimacy of showing such matches has long been a legal mooting point, the precedent case for which involves a pub in Portsmouth named “Red, White and Blue”. Karen Murphy, the publican of the bar in question, received matches from Greek station Nova Sports at a much lower price than that of BSkyB and was subsequently prosecuted by Portsmouth Crown Court under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. However Nova Sports, as well as many of the other foreign channels that such publicans subscribe to operate within the EU, therefore the High Court granted Ms Murphy the right to appeal her prosecution to the European Court of Justice as a restraint of free trade among member states. Her case is due to appear before the Luxembourg court in the near future.

One legal observer (http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=194786) has assessed the possible effects of the Premier league’s ongoing pursuit to crack down on such pubs as potentially being ‘the sledgehammer that cracked the table and missed the walnut altogether’, in that if Murphy's conviction is upheld, it would also make illegal around 2 million Sky systems that are presently installed across other countries in the EU. The intention of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 was to incorporate EU statute 93/83, under which judgment could be applied throughout the European Union against Sky in favour of the indigenous broadcaster. On the other hand, if Murphy’s prosecution is overturned it would lead to the undermining of the licensing of media rights on a territory-by-territory basis, meaning Sky would be far less inclined to pay handsomely for exclusive UK rights.

It can also be said that despite Sir Chips’ latent disapproval, the establishments around North London who screen Arsenal’s matches live on Saturday afternoons were previously low down on the list of worries for the Arsenal board. However, this season the availability of 3PM Saturday home Premiership games on general sale will be at its most frequent for over a decade. The presence of these bars, with their available alcohol, pre-premiership terrace atmosphere and camaraderie are, in the current climate, unwanted competition for the board. They may just have to reassess whether asking fans to fork out £60 plus for an environment in which you are forced to sit throughout and face the threat of ejection for daring to sing really is value for money.