The answer seems obvious
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This is the English version of the post La risposta sembra ovvia, originally published in Italian in the ITALY community.
🚨 The top officials of Lega Serie A and the FIGC continue to threaten users who intend to follow Italian football through illegal apps or websites. But with constantly rising costs, questionable subscription formulas, and the credibility of the system at rock‑bottom, failing to realize that pirate servers are the least of the problems is pushing the system into a bubble from which it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape.
Here we go again: the league is starting, and the usual chorus of threats aimed at users who choose non‑official services to watch Serie A is back. Most recently, it was the CEO of Lega Calcio, Luigi De Siervo (and in case you were wondering — don’t worry, he’s an openly declared Inter supporter as well), who reminded streaming ‘tricksters’ of the heavy civil and criminal consequences they risk facing.
Online, the specter of the five‑thousand‑euro fine is once again being waved around — a punishment supposedly triggered the moment our eyes dare to land, even by accident, on a single frame of such a precious spectacle as Serie A (or Marotta League, if you prefer). All of this focuses on the finger pointing at the moon, while ignoring the most obvious truth: those who don’t want to pay will not change their minds because of threats.
On the contrary, the recent and extremely serious events involving — yet again — Inter, its executives, and its registered members, along with the club’s blatant and confirmed impunity, have dealt yet another blow to the credibility of the entire system.
Photo by Stefan Coders from Pixabay
**On social networks, new campaigns are circulating urging users to cancel all TV subscriptions related to the Serie A championship, and the system — already in crisis — may soon wake up to the bitter surprise of yet another hemorrhage of subscribers. After all, threats have always been the last refuge of those who feel cornered.
In recent days, Italian newspapers — now reduced to mere microphone‑holders for whoever is in power — have launched a media assault against Tring, the Albanian Pay TV service that holds the domestic broadcasting rights to our league, accused of failing to set geographic‑blocking limits for its transmissions.
Anyone, from anywhere in the world, could subscribe to their service for about 10 euros a month (a quarter of what DAZN costs in Italy) and watch Serie A. Tring was insulted, equated to a ‘pezzotto’ (illegal streaming), and forced to take immediate action under threat of having its acquired rights suspended.
The result of this ‘extraordinary’ victory for De Siervo and company? Giving massive publicity to a mostly unknown service — one that people can still subscribe to anyway, simply by adding two or three euros a month, the estimated cost of a professional VPN (and there are free ones as well).
Photo by Julian_Hamburg from Pixabay
**What is increasingly astonishing is how those who run Italian football today seem completely unaware of the system’s real problems: first and foremost, the total loss of credibility caused by the blatant protection enjoyed by Inter; and secondly, the high costs required to watch a league that is becoming more and more mediocre, even from a technical standpoint.
These out‑of‑touch figures ignore the fact that there are at least a dozen other official platforms similar to Tring — some even free and located within the borders of the European Union, making them formally untouchable.
To defeat piracy, a single, extremely simple move would be enough — one that the music industry already demonstrated years ago when platforms like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music emerged: make the basic service free, supported by advertising.
**In other words: do you want to watch Serie A officially? Go ahead — it’s free, exactly like when you search for a song on YouTube. However, every five minutes, the broadcast is accompanied by one or more ads, picture‑in‑picture, lasting about thirty seconds.
Don’t want ads? Then you pay for a Silver subscription. Want stadium audio, tunnel cameras, referee‑player conversations? Here’s a Gold subscription for you. And the ability to rewatch the match on demand? Of course — that’s included in the Diamond plan. These are just examples born from my imagination, not because I’m a genius or because Andrea Agnelli was one when he proposed it for the emerging Super League, but simply because the entire paid‑service ecosystem has been moving in that direction for years.
Is it better to have guaranteed revenue from advertising, or to constantly patch holes in a system that is losing subscribers everywhere? The answer seems obvious to everyone — except De Siervo.
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Pará, esos 5 000 € de multa que tiran los de la Serie A son de la puta madre, ¿qué pensás que les pasa a los hinchas? Te juro que me hace temblar cada vez que lo escucho, es re ridículo.
Un tribunal italiano ha dictaminado recientemente que ver un partido en streaming ilegal no puede considerarse un delito y ha sancionado a los infractores con una simple multa de 154 euros... Prácticamente la mitad del coste de la suscripción que habrían tenido que pagar a DAZN.
La verdad es que los periodistas a sueldo siguen agitando el fantasma de la multa de 5.000 euros para asustar a la gente, pero esto no tiene ningún fundamento.
Este año, en particular, los derechos televisivos del fútbol italiano se gestionan de forma ridícula. Yo mismo ya he encontrado dos cadenas extranjeras que retransmiten los partidos de forma gratuita, una de ellas sin necesidad siquiera de una VPN, y muchas otras a las que uno puede suscribirse tranquilamente a un precio muy bajo, entre 5 y 10 euros al mes.
El año que viene vencen los derechos televisivos de DAZN y, si en Italia no se hace limpieza de las manzanas podridas, será una masacre...
An Italian court has recently ruled that watching a match via an illegal stream cannot be considered a criminal offence and has punished offenders with a simple fine of 154 euros… Practically half the cost of the subscription they would have had to pay to DAZN.
The truth is that spin doctors continue to wave the spectre of a 5,000-euro fine to scare people, but there is no substance to this at all.
This year, in particular, the TV rights for Italian football are being managed in a farcical manner. I myself have already found two foreign broadcasters showing the matches for free – one of them without even needing a VPN – and numerous others to which you can easily subscribe at very low costs, ranging from 5 to 10 euros a month.
DAZN’s TV rights expire next year, and if Italy doesn’t weed out the bad apples, it’ll be a bloodbath…
Un tribunale italiano ha recentemente stabilito che guardare una partita in streaming illegale non può essere considerato reato e ha punito i trasgressori con una semplice multa da 154 euro... Praticamente la metà del costo dell'abbonamento che avrebbero dovuto pagare a Dazn.
La verità è che i giornalisti asserviti continuano ad agitare lo spettro dei 5000 euro di multa per spaventare le persone, ma questa cosa non ha nessuna sostanza alle spalle.
Quest'anno, in modo particolare, i diritti TV del calcio italiano sono gestiti in maniera comica. Io stesso ho trovato già due emittenti straniere che trasmettono le partite gratuitamente, una di queste senza nemmeno bisogno di VPN, e numerose altre alle quali ci si può tranquillamente abbonare a costi molto bassi, dai 5 ai 10 euro al mese.
L'anno prossimo scadono i diritti TV di DAZN e se in Italia non si farà pulizia delle mele marce, sarà un bagno di sangue...
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