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Premier league loses case against pub landlady kar

PostPosted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:30 am
by lakes10
Premier League games can be shown on foreign decoders
Karen Murphy on why she took her fight to Europe, speaking to 5 live in October 2010
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A pub landlady has won the latest stage of her fight to air Premier League games using a foreign TV decoder.

Karen Murphy had to pay nearly £8,000 in fines and costs for using a cheaper Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to bypass controls over match screening.

But she took her case to the European Court of Justice.

The ECJ now says national laws which prohibit the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards are contrary to the freedom to provide services.

'Relief'

It said national legislation, which banned the use of overseas decoders, could not "be justified either in light of the objective of protecting intellectual property rights or by the objective of encouraging the public to attend football stadiums".

"She's overwhelmed with relief at the moment," Mrs Murphy's lawyer, Paul Dixon, told BBC Radio Solent.

"It's been a long road for her but she's delighted to be getting the case back to the High Court now in London where it will be finalised, before very long we hope.

"It will mean increased competition in the broadcast market that's for sure."

The ECJ findings will now go to the High Court in London, which had sent the matter to the ECJ for guidance, for a final ruling.

However, it is unusual for a member state High Court to pass a different judgment to one provided by the ECJ.

'Contingency plans'

The decision could trigger a major shake-up for the Premier League and its current exclusive agreements with Sky Sports and ESPN, and pave the way to cheaper viewing for fans of top-flight English games.

"In practical terms, the Premier League will now have to decide how it wishes to re-tender its rights," said sports media lawyer Daniel Geey of Field Fisher Waterhouse solicitors.

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Start Quote
On the face of it, it looks like a blow for the Premier League and... broadcasters Sky and ESPN”
End Quote
David Bond

BBC sport editor
"There can be little doubt it will have contingency plans ready to go and has various options available.

"Be it a pan-EU tender, selling in only certain EU member states or devising a plan to start its own channel, they will be deciding how best to maximise the value of their product to ensure any revenue shortfall is minimised."

The judges said the Premier League could not claim copyright over Premier League matches as they could not considered to be an author's own "intellectual creation" and, therefore, to be "works" for the purposes of EU copyright law.

However, the ECJ did add that while live matches were not protected by copyright, any surrounding media, such as any opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded films showing highlights of recent Premier League matches and various graphics, were "works" protected by copyright.

To use any of these parts of a broadcast, a pub would need the permission of the Premier League.

'Major blow'

"On the face of it, it looks like a blow for the Premier League and... broadcasters Sky and ESPN," said BBC sport editor David Bond.

He said the Premier League had faced many regulatory challenges in the past and would find ways to get round the new situation.


Karen Murphy used the Greek firm Nova to show Premier League games Sky has pumped billions into top flight English football since the league was founded in 1992, with the money given to clubs allowing them to buy some of the top names in the world.

Our correspondent said that would not necessarily change, given the huge value of other deals.

The Premier League's television income from mainland Europe is about £130m, less than 10% of their total £1.4bn overseas rights deal.

But he warned that it could have significant repercussions for other rights holders outside of sport, with life potentially getting more difficult for the film industry, which also sells its product on an country-by-country basis.

Satellite signals

The legal battle kicked off six years ago, when Ms Murphy was taken to court for using the Nova firm to show matches at the Red, White and Blue pub.

Using the Greek service, she had paid £118 a month, rather than £480 a month with the official broadcaster.

Licensed broadcasters encrypt satellite signals, with subscribers needing a decoder card to access them.

Ms Murphy took advantage of an offer to UK pubs to use imported cards.

In February, an ECJ advocate general said this was in line with the aims of the EU single market - a border-free zone for goods and services.

The Premier League has already taken action against two suppliers of foreign satellite equipment and a group of pub landlords who used imported decoding equipment to show English Premier League games and avoided the commercial premises subscription fees for Sky.



you can pick up the foreign decoders for about £20 to £50 and you can run them off any old sky dish (they are the bigger ones) still have my old one still up next to the new one.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 11:44 am
by Igor Zidane
Ale house in Liverpool have been showing the games on the foreign channels for years . The police don't enforce the licensing laws very strictly up here . Don't know of one ale house that's had any problems.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:32 pm
by lakes10
Igor Zidane wrote:Ale house in Liverpool have been showing the games on the foreign channels for years . The police don't enforce the licensing laws very strictly up here . Don't know of one ale house that's had any problems.

I think and i might be wrong here, someone from sky walked in when a game was on and reported her, once she was reported she was always being looked at.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:53 pm
by Kenny Kan
I used to watch matches like this in pubs darn sarf well over 8 years ago.

Personally, I don't like the fact the ECJ is able to rule over national legislation - but I do like the idea of watching Prem games in an English pub at 3:00 on a Satday afternoon. Catch 22.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 2:27 pm
by Igor Zidane
Kenny Kan wrote:I used to watch matches like this in pubs darn sarf well over 8 years ago.

Personally, I don't like the fact the ECJ is able to rule over national legislation - but I do like the idea of watching Prem games in an English pub at 3:00 on a Satday afternoon. Catch 22.

Feel free to laugh bam , but do they show the matches on in the pubs down there . I know there on at stupid o'clock in the morning but are there any pubs that stay open especially for it like?

PostPosted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:56 pm
by Kenny Kan
Igor Zidane wrote:
Kenny Kan wrote:I used to watch matches like this in pubs darn sarf well over 8 years ago.

Personally, I don't like the fact the ECJ is able to rule over national legislation - but I do like the idea of watching Prem games in an English pub at 3:00 on a Satday afternoon. Catch 22.

Feel free to laugh bam , but do they show the matches on in the pubs down there . I know there on at stupid o'clock in the morning but are there any pubs that stay open especially for it like?

Good question. I have watched a few games live before in more built up areas like Brisbane and the Gold Coast - namely in their casinos where they are 24hr. Some pubs in these areas are also 24hr and you may be lucky to watch them there.

However, I live 'out bush' and don't get to watch them anywhere else apart from a decent live stream, which I got for the Everton match. Or I download the game the very next morning without checking the results first.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:00 pm
by tubby
Where can I get one of these hook ups? Thinking about getting it at home.

Re: Premier league loses case against pub landlady kar

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:41 pm
by SouthCoastShankly
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-20/premier-league-ceo-says-u-k-television-sale-may-be-scrapped.html

Premier League CEO Says U.K. Television Sale May Be Scrapped
By Tariq Panja - Mar 20, 2012 12:09 PM GMT

The Premier League may scrap plans to sell its record-breaking live soccer rights to the U.K. market and instead issue a pan-European license from 2013 following an anti-trust ruling by the region’s top court.

Chief Executive Officer Richard Scudamore said his organization is mulling an option of selling the rights in a bundle to sell across the continent after the European Court of Justice last year stated that homeowners could purchase decoders showing foreign broadcasts.

“There’s not a decision been made yet as to whether we’re going to do a domestic deal or not,” Scudamore said. “One of the implications of the ECJ decision is that we are still working on whether we now actually sell the rights on a pan European basis.”

The English league’s current three-year U.K. contracts with Sky Sports and ESPN are valued at 1.78 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) and finish at the end of the 2012-13 season. It gets another 1.4 billion pounds from overseas sales, making it the highest grossing domestic soccer league in the world. Pubs remain barred from using a European card to show matches that feature copyright material owned by the league.

The tender documents for the next round of rights bidding will be released between April and June and the league will keep its options open, Scudamore said.
“We won’t set ourselves false deadlines,” Scudamore said, adding the league is talking to broadcasters across Europe to understand their “attitudes and aptitudes for pan-European verses individual territory” sales.

BSkyB
The Premier League’s financial success has come from payments from British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY), which has broadcast the competition in the U.K. since the league’s inception in 1992. Scudamore said that relationship counts for little when it comes to deciding who the rights are awarded to.

“Ultimately whatever umbilical cord there might be as an ongoing working commercial relationship gets severed as the invitation to tender gets issued,” he told an audience of sports industry professionals that included Barney Francis, the managing director of Sky Sports. “Once we’re in the process, there’s nothing they can do other than being the best bidder to win those rights.”

Re:

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:26 pm
by CraigBedworth
tubby wrote:Where can I get one of these hook ups? Thinking about getting it at home.


I think it's only for commercial establishments like pubs, restaurants etc.