LaLiga has in her hand to prevent people from stopping seeing illegal IPTV. You just have to imitate Netflix

The nightmare of IPS blocks by LaLiga continues. Not only that: it seems to increase. Soccer is becoming a problem For Internet users in our country, and are (we are) paying fair for sinners.

Why is this happening? This is what we try to find out analyzing one of the potential root problems – the cost of seeing football – and stating those prices with what has happened on other streaming platforms. Why what works for Netflix or Spotify does not do so for football? Let’s see it.

How much does football cost in Spain and Europe

Today in Spain football fans depend on telephone operators to enjoy these broadcasts. If the objective is to be able to access all the First Division Soccer matches of LaLiga and those of competitions such as the Champions League, The options are two: Movistar+ and Orange.

They told it a few months ago Our mobile Xataka companionswhich explained what were the disputes available plans, in which fiber, mobile and television are always combined in different versions. In those two cases Prices start from 115 euros per month of Movistar or the 80.95 euros per month of Orange (although without mobile data).

O2 and Jazztel also offer some games, but much more limited: each day we have access to a LaLiga EA Sports (First Division) match, a Champions League match (if celebrated day) and three games of LaLiga Hypermotion (Second Division).

That exclusivity of Movistar and Orange, however, They could change: Yoigo and Masmoble plan a television service with Orange TV infrastructure and in which 90 channels and all football will be included. At the moment there are no prices or defined availability date for this project.

And in Europe?

Other European countries have different costs, but it is important here to emphasize that the prices we will talk about are access to football without further ad I would go apart. Thus, we have:

• France: Dazn has a package to see all the link 1 for 35 euros per month (25 euros/month if you are under 26 years). Canal+ has a plan that also includes European competitions and costs 29.99 euros per month.
• Germany: In Dazn Unlimited All Bundesliga and Champions League matches for 34.99 euros per month are available. There are some optional platforms such as Sky with similar prices.
• Italy: DAZN offers all the A series A for 30 euros per month, while they can see the Champions League, it must be combined with Sky Italy, which has a cost of 25 euros per month. The total cost is therefore 55 euros per month.
• England: Sky Sports has all the rights to convey the matches, and the package costs about 22 pounds per month (26 euros/month). BT Sport broadcasts the Champions League, and the cost in that case is 25 euros per month, so the combined cost is about 51 euros per month.

What is also true is that these amounts and these plans vary constantly and both operators and platforms offer constant promotions in order to capture more users.

When Netflix taught us the way

There was a time when music downloads or films on P2P networks were especially popular. That was cumbersome and illegal, but there were not many more options either. Or none.

Everything would change with the arrival of Netflix, Spotify and its competitors, who showed that we could have streaming services of fantastic content, accessible, with a great catalog and with a more than reasonable price. Suddenly I was no longer compensated to be looking for other places: The legal alternative was really remarkable.

The subscription model settled and became the norm, and thanks to a good balance, content companies realized something striking: the best way to fight illegal content was to offer a good service at an acceptable price.

This principle has been corrupted in recent years: Servcios like Netflix have Uploaded prices Notably, they have stopped allowing Share accounts And they have also put ads, Like all its competitors. Users can protest (we protest), but time has proved those responsible for these services, who have not stopped growing and They are in record figures.

How have things come out to Netflix? We can see it in two quite representative graphics of the situation. Since 2012, when the service began to be available in the US (arrived in Spain Something later), Netflix was raising prices more and more frequent. With each climb protests, yes, but … Sooner or later most return.

In fact, growth in users is apparently unstoppable in Netflix. The plan with advertisements, which we can criticize so much, It has been a resounding success And today more than half of the new subscribers arrive at the service thanks to this plan.

At present, the platform has More than 300 million subscriberswhen a decade ago The figure was five times lower (62.71, According to Business of Apps). There have been hardly two semester throughout its history in which there had The shared accounts or the plan with ads.

That seems to make it clear that despite everything to millions of users They are still compensated by paying those subscriptions And not to go to illegal content distribution services, so if it works for them, what is happening with football in Spain?

The Netflix of Sports

Today the standard plan with Netflix ads costs 7 euros per month. Not bad, especially considering what football costs. Even considering the cost of the most affordable plans to see all football in Spain (with many asterisks, about 29 euros in Orange), the price both here and in other countries in Europe seems elevated.

It is for example when we compare it with the one that has the NBA in the United States: there the platform NBA League Pass in its basic version It costs 109.99 dollars … a year. If you just want to follow your team with Team Pass – a simply great idea – you can do it for $ 89.99 a year.

If you want to pay it per month, the fees are something higher: $ 16.99 a month in the basic, $ 13.99 per month in Team Pass. It is a powerful alternative that once again compensates and makes interest in hiring illegal IPTVs does not make so much sense.

In our country, in fact, there was a clear example of something that resembled the NBA League Pass: in the Qatar World Cup in Qatar the users They could see the 64 games for 19.99 euros Thanks to the Midopro world goal platform. A unique and totally independent rate of the operator that gave access to all the meetings comfortably. And that would be the ideal way to offer football in Spain.

It should be noted that in our country Movistar has some special modalities such as watching a match per day for 10 euros per month, but of course, it is most likely that this game is not of the team of which you are a follower. The example of the NBA Team Pass again leaves Movistar’s option again in a very bad place.

And Dazn in Spain gives access to see half of the games of each day for 40 euros per month, but once again, it does not guarantee that you will always be able to see the team of which you are a follower.

The fundamental problem is not only in the price, but in the fact that In Spain you can’t (for example) from Vodafone and see all football: You need to be from Movistar or Orange. You cannot freely choose which fiber+mobile service you want to hire, because football conditions everything. In other European countries that does not happen: football goes on the one hand, and connectivity on the other.

Thus, we would have to ask LaLiga – other European leagues – why football is comparatively so expensive. For years LaLiga keeps one Absolute war against them illegal emissions of football matches. The judicial attacks of the past have become a different tactic in recent months: instead of going for specific offenders, They are directly bombing the Internet with indiscriminate blockages of IPS.

The problem of this new way of fighting IPTV services is that it is causing damage to third parties – how Justice does not allow– And that continues to show a strange obsession to put doors to the field. Cloudflare and their clients are great affected by the problem, and although both they and independent entities such as rootedcon They have tried to solve the problem, justice Follow LaLiga.

This conflict is harming all parties. LaLiga is suffering great reputational damage, the operators are accused of being allied in those blockages, cloudflare and Other CDN They end harming legitimate clients and while end users lose access to all kinds of web services. It is a disaster.

The question is, could it be solved? The answer seems obvious: yes, if LaLiga looks at what happened with Netflix or Spotify. Or what is happening with the NBA. The service in fact already meets many of the requirements that any user asks: it is accessible and comfortable.

The (greater) problem is the price.

Years ago The price to see football in Spain is the most expensive of the five major European leagues. That is a terrible symptom, and one that has a simple solution: to lower prices so that users are compensating to pay for football. If they do not now, it is probably because the price factor is especially important.

Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, does not seem to comment on the same when asked about those prices. In an informative breakfast of Europa Press in February declared that the cost of football as such is reasonable, and the problem is another:

“Soccer is not expensivewhat happens is that for you to see football you have to have the broadband package, the mobile … but what is football is 25 or 30 euros. “

And yet the reality is what it is. Netflix is ​​in subscriber record figures and Spotify has achieved Your particular financial miracle After 18 years losing money. Both have marked the way and the solution, which does not seem so complicated: varied plans, balanced and that compensate for users.

The illegal contents have not disappeared, of course, but neither those platforms nor the owners of the rights are desperately trying to put doors to the field because they no longer need it. Their services are still good enough for users, so we have become accustomed to paying for movies, series or music.

But not for football. And that makes it clear that In LaLiga something fails. Perhaps varied, balanced plans that compensate for users economically.

Just maybe.

In Xataka | This week there is almost every day football and that means one thing: constant internet blockages by LaLiga