Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh has warned acts such as the streaming of the blockbuster Anthony Mundine and Danny Green boxing match by users on Facebook Live, put investment in content at risk and could lead to the docking of pay for athletes and entertainers.
At least two Facebook users broadcast the Foxtel $59.95 pay-per-view event via Facebook Live, streaming the event to thousands of users who did not pay Foxtel to view the night's match-ups.
Mr Tonagh is concerned with some of the public response to the piracy, which seemed to not care about the copyright breach. "This idea of allowing people to be heroes from pirating content is a real issue," Mr Tonagh told The Australian Financial Review.
One viewer who was streaming the match over Facebook, Darren Sharpe, recorded a Foxtel representative telling him what he was doing was illegal and asking him to stop. He has set up a crowd-funded financing page to cover legal costs if Foxtel pursues action.
Mr Tonagh would not comment on the specifics of Foxtel's plan for redress, but criticised the response from Facebook. He is now in talks with senior executives at the San Francisco-based social media business.
"It's pretty clear the response from Facebook was very poor, we didn't get the response you'd expect to have from them," he said. "There needs to be a lot more co-operation between the platforms and content owners to arrive at solutions that work at scale."
Foxtel's service agreement restricts the product to individual residential use and is not authorised for rebroadcast, a point Mr Tonagh said was reiterated before the boxing event.
Mr Tonagh said the bulk of the money flows through to people such as promoters and the boxers. "Our view is, we spend over $900 million a year on locally produced content, that leads to the employment of hundreds of Australians," he said.
He said if issues like this continue it may lead to less investment in such events.
"It was pretty clear, the response was this causes [promoters] issues. If they can't monetise the rights they're promoting, they can't promote fights any more," Mr Tonagh said.
Money from media businesses such as Foxtel, the free-to-air broadcasters and telecommunications companies is the main source of revenue for sporting bodies, such as the AFL and NRL, as well as for a host of other television properties, including scripted drama. The money goes a long way to paying athletes, promoters, producers and actors.
Labor NSW senator Sam Dastyari weighed in on the night with what he said was a tongue-in-cheek tweet about one of the streamers.
"Brett Hevers for Australian of the year. It was great while it lasted..... (share if you actually gets this)," Senator Dastyari said on Twitter on Friday night.
Senator Dastyari said he would be asking the Department of Communications questions regarding the Foxtel Green v Mundine issue.
"I think it highlights the complexities of copyright law in the modern age. And when you're charging $60 for a product, people are going to try and find a way around that," he said.
"The challenge for Foxtel is going to be balancing their copyright concerns with what will really look like them punching on with a couple of young people being foolish."
A Facebook spokesperson referred to a blog post regarding live video.
"As more people watch and share live video on Facebook, we've taken steps to ensure that Rights Manager protects live video streams as well. We check every Facebook Live video stream against files in the Rights Manager reference library, and if a match surfaces, we'll interrupt that live video," the spokesperson said.
"Video publishers and media companies can also provide reference streams of live content so that we can check live video on Facebook against those reference streams in real time."
