The broadcaster believes that as many as one thousand viewers in Finland have been following the coverage of matches offered by a YouTube channel run by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
MTV3 owns the exclusive rights for transmission of the Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland. The IHHF channel, however, showed all the matches live and free of charge until today. A geo-gate was supposed to prevent Finnish viewers from tuning in, but that did not placate the Finnish broadcaster.
”I consider this to be theft. We have paid a high price for the broadcast rights and it is not the intention to distribute coverage for nothing,” says MTV’s Director of Internet and Consumer Business Jorma Härkönen.
He fears an increase in those circumventing the geo-gate on Finnish computers.
”Currently no major problem exists but the fear exists that this might become something of a national habit,” he adds.
Live streaming stopped
To address the concerns, rights holder Infront Sports and Media decided to introduce a 30-minute time delay on the YouTube broadcasts.
Copyright bodies such as The Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC) say fans watching the live broadcasts were not actually breaking the law. Nonetheless, they share the view along with the broadcaster that more viewers would manage to get round the block.
”If YouTube does not improve its national geo-gate, it will be very difficult to address this issue,” says Director Antti Kotilainen from the CIAPC.
”This phenomenon could become a habit as people learn how to circumvent technology. As long as the International Ice Hockey Federation streams material freely on the net, people will get their hands on it,” says Director Chairman of Electronic Frontier Finland, Dr. Ville Oksanen.