Twitter needs to crack down on illegal goal clips, says Sun editor

The editor of the Sun has called on Twitter to crack down on the illegal posting of goal clips to help protect News UK’s £30m investment in digital Premier League football highlights.

David Dinsmore, who also dismissed the suggestion that the Sun was a “quieter” brand after introducing a digital paywall, said the issue of illegally posted clips needs to be addressed.

“Rights protection is a massive issue, not just for rights-holders but rights-owners as well,” said Dinsmore. “It is definitely something that Twitter is going to have to step up to the plate on.”

News UK, the Sun’s publisher, has spent tens of millions of pounds buying rights to web and mobile highlights of prime sports events – the crown jewel being its £30m, three-year deal with the Premier League – to try and build its £2-a-week Sun+ subscription business.

However, football fans can easily record clips – either from their TV or live at the ground – and post them to Twitter, Vine or other social media.

Speaking at a News UK media briefing, Dinsmore said Twitter was the platform that needed to take action. “If you look at YouTube now, the takedown tools [for illegal clips] are pretty efficient,” he said. “Software sees the image and down it comes.

“Vine is an issue but I think that there are big steps forward being taken. A lot of the sort of app-based offerings [of illegal content] that were out there 18 months ago are no longer here because they have been sanctioned. It is a battle we all have to deal with.”

Dinsmore said he met Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, earlier this week when the issue of rights protection was raised. “I told him ‘shall we get it sorted out, please’,” he quipped.

Dinsmore was also asked if the move to put the Sun’s digital content behind a paywall would reduce the impact of the UK’s best selling paper online in the run-up to the 2015 general election.

“I don’t think that this will encroach on our share of voice at all,” he said. “The Sun has not become a quieter brand as a result of being paid [for online]. If anything we get talked about more than previously. Despite the fact you can’t read our stuff free of charge there are plenty of people who are going to talk about what is in the Sun.”