INDEPENDENT MEP Michael McNamara has warned that the paywalling of live sport, combined with opaque and unfair consumer practices by broadcasters, is actively fuelling digital piracy across Europe.
Speaking in the European Parliament during a debate on piracy and sports broadcasting, McNamara said that while illegal streaming is a genuine problem, policymakers must confront the commercial practices that are pricing ordinary people out of watching sport legally.
“Digital piracy is a problem,” McNamara said. “But putting all live sport behind paywalls, rolling over contracts without transparency, and squeezing fans with ever-rising costs is not acceptable either.”
McNamara pointed in particular to practices by major broadcasters, including Sky, which recently argued before an Irish court that it was under no obligation to inform customers when contracts were ending or to highlight alternative or cheaper offers, instead rolling contracts over automatically at existing prices.
“That argument was rejected by the court, applying EU law,” McNamara said. “It’s a clear example of how EU consumer protection rules matter in people’s everyday lives.”
The MEP warned that such practices, combined with the near-total migration of live sport behind paywalls, are eroding public access to events that once played an important social and cultural role.
“Shared moments like Italia ’90 or Euro ’88 brought communities together. Increasingly, those shared experiences are reserved only for those who can afford ever more expensive subscriptions.”
McNamara also highlighted the inconsistency of sporting bodies receiving significant public funding while allowing access to their competitions to be increasingly restricted.
“When access to sport becomes unaffordable or unfair, it should surprise no one that some people turn to so-called ‘dodgy boxes’,” he said. “If we want to reduce piracy, we must address its causes not just its symptoms.”
McNamara concluded by calling for stronger enforcement of consumer law, greater transparency in subscription practices, and a renewed debate about public access to sport in receipt of state support.
