Anthony Maguire* has had his “dodgy box” for just over two years. He resisted the temptation for a long time because he believed the quality of the streams would be patchy and the prevalence of pornographic pop-ups off-putting.
A friend who sells and installs the boxes eventually convinced him to buy one so he handed over €300 for the hardware and paid an annual subscription of €150 to access pretty much all the content in the world.
“When I first looked at them years ago the quality was crap. I just couldn’t watch a match with all the pixellating and lagging so I stuck with Sky Sports,” he says. “But the bill was just astronomical, something like €160 a month.”
His friend gave him a demo and he was sold. “The quality was unbelievable, just excellent.”
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He also watches pay-per-view boxing, and his kids have access to movies and television programmes from all the big platforms, often while they are still being screened in Irish cinemas.
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And then there is the ease of use and the portability.
“We went on holidays to Portugal last summer and all I had to do was plug the stick out of my TV at home and into the one on holidays and we had access to exactly the same content,” he says. “I was able to watch the All-Ireland hurling final just like I was at home.”
He says his pal “who makes a few quid off these things in the background of his life” is not overly concerned he will face any sanctions. “I suppose if he was caught he could just stop doing it but he has been selling them at a low level for 20 years.”
Maguire is not oblivious to the moral and ethical questions of streaming content illegally.
He is also old enough to remember the anti-piracy messages found on vinyl records in the 1980s when music fans were warned that home taping was killing music.
“I don’t think my mixtapes did any harm to the Violent Femmes or Nirvana really,” he says.
“It does or did give me pause for thought and that is why I was so late to it but the savings are just incredible. When you add the sports to the cost of a terrestrial subscription and three or four streaming platforms, you’d be looking at €250 a month compared to the €150 a year that I pay.
“I know there is an ethical dilemma here; there’s no doubt about it. But at the same time these corporations are making astronomical sums and this is just a drop in the ocean to them.”
When asked if he has concerns about Sky’s latest hints that it might come after end users such as him, he simply laughs. “I wouldn’t be losing any sleep over that,” he says.
*Not his real name.
