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THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE has been given a major blow at the European Court of Justice, which has ruled that it is legal for domestic customers to show premium sports events by using a TV decoder intended for foreign audiences.
The Premier League – the group composed of the top 20 teams in English league football – had taken Portsmouth landlady Karen Murphy to court over her use of a foreign decoder to show games which were not being broadcast elsewhere.
The Premier League’s broadcasting packages for the UK do not allow the broadcast of matches kicking off at 3pm – with the idea being that live televised coverage of afternoon games would disincentivise fans from attending games in person.
In a bid to get around this, Murphy had taken out a subscription to a Greek TV service, and bought the appropriate decoder – meaning she could show matches with 3pm kickoffs involving the local side, which at the time was a Premier League team.
Aside from the practical benefits of allowing a 3pm kickoff, the Greek service – with TV network Nova – was also cheaper: it cost £118 per month, compared to the £480 per month that Sky charges for a subscription in a commercial premises.
Today the European Court, in a major blow to the Premier League, ruled that the free movement of services meant Murphy was entitled to take out a Greek subscription.
It also found that it would be illegal for TV providers to disable broadcasts in individual territories – with the BBC explaining that the UK’s legislation restricting the sale of foreign decoders “could not be justified” by concerns over the attendances at games.
It ruled against Murphy, however, in her bid to show the games to her customers through the Nova subscription – saying parts of the individual broadcasts, such as the Premier League anthem, are the intellectual property of the Premier League who must approve their commercial reuse.
The ruling does mean, however, that users can take out foreign subscriptions to watch games on a domestic basis.
The ECJ’s ruling is not final – it had been asked to offer guidance on the matter by Britain’s High Court, which has the final say – but it will still nonetheless force a major rethink of the lucrative TV rights packages which form the backbone of the Premier League’s commercial viability.
Indeed, in early trading in London, shares in British Sky Broadcasting Group – whose Sky Sports channels own the exclusive rights to the majority of Premier League games – fell by around 3.3 per cent on foot of the news.
Before the ruling had been issued, the Guardian had speculated that a loss for the Premier League may force it to revise its usual sales model and to sell its rights on a pan-European basis – a deal which could throw up competition problems of its own.
This could have a major impact on its revenues, however, with a single European group unlikely to pay as much for a pan-European package as they would have on an individual basis, given the lesser competition for such an expensive deal
Another option for the league would be to create its own channel in some countries, or across the European Union – but this also presents practical problems in regard to how individual games could be restricted.
The current round of TV deals expires at the end of the 2012-2013 season.
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So much for people who say why vote, my vote doesn’t count. You can see here that every vote does count
@Alan: Well, every 35 anyway.
Hopefully he will stay in, last thing we need is another Liebour TD
This should mean PBP lose their speaking rights in the Dáil. Every cloud, eh readers?
@honey badger: Yawn. Bore off.
@honey badger: I believe it does. It’s an awful shame Paul Murphy managed to scrape in. But at least we won’t have to listen to him as much
@Ian: Cheer up, Ian. I’m sure you can watch their previous episodes on oireactas tv!
@Ger Whelan: It is an awful shame! It’s a small but welcome consolation that their lack of electoral traction has muzzled them.
@Ger Whelan:
Pop up Paul is actualy useful.
He sucks up the brain dead vote that would have gone to Sinn Fein.
@honey badger: You don’t understand how speaking rights work. They will form a group of 7 with another small party or independents for the sake of speaking rights.
You’d have none of this nonsense if the media hadn’t campaigned against e-voting
@Tom O’ Donnell: In 2024 there’s definetly a case to be made for online voting.
If our banks allow us to bank online and the taxman allows us to do our taxes online surely it’s not beyond the wit of man to figure out an online voting system.
There would be issues with the old and infirm being able to access it but then again not having to make their way to a polling station would possible balance that out.
The current system / circus is closer to the famine than autonomous cars and nuclear fusion.
@Tom O’ Donnell:
E voting in Brazil since 1996, population of 216 million, shows how backward we are in this country
@Tom O’ Donnell: The paper ballot is a permanent record, not vulnerable to hacking or whatever other online skullduggery can be dreamt up. A bulwark of democracy.
@John Brennan: Or even just simple coding (programming) errors.
@William Airey: I don’t think we need to learn anything about democracy from Brazil, thanks
Mick Barry is having a hard time accepting that Cork people do not want to be represented by a full-time whinger.
@D Farrell: Typical he has been rejected shouting and balling is not political discourse
@D Farrell: Very poor representative, never anything to offer, just anti everything.
@SV3tN8M4: oh the irony
A battle of the Commies.
@Dan Murphy: Isn’t that the truth. It’s a bit like choosing whether to get punched in the face or kicked in the crotch.
@Dan Murphy: Or to more accurate: a battle of the dictionary-shy who don’t understand what a communist is.
@SerotoninWars:
A communist is what you end up with after the socialists have finished wiping out the middleclasses.
Mick hasn’t been seen or heard of around our constituency up until 3/4 weeks ago. Absolute bluffer of a man. His lackies do all his work. Change it up and give Maher a chance. Mick’s a waking sound bite (the rare time he pops up) like election time
@Alan Murphy: Spot on.
@Alan Murphy: He got an easy in 2016 after labour were wiped out, Kathleen Lynch , had to look her up btw did so much for that area, including getting back paid SW for women who were discriminated against……I went school in the North Mon in the 70s so it’s a place that I genuinely love…….well done Labour Toddy is looking down happily
Getting in this late seems like an ‘I was the best of the worst’ badge of honneur.
Way too many TDs in Ireland.
@offside again: Feck off
Delighted for the young guy from Mallow even though the other Labour party candidate John Maher gave a lot of transfers to Mick Barry. City voters versus Mallow voters. Best of Luck to Eoin a budding politician since birth.
@Tim Brennan: And whatabout Sarsfields beating Ballygunner…..that’s the real story…..wrong constituency but what the feck
Well our democracy allows for this so let it happen, if Labour prevails great as its a long time since there was a Labour TD in that constituency…..I think it was Toddy O O’Sullivan, although Democratic Left had that lady…..and they merged so maybe it’s not that long.
Barry and Co have a real problem with the voters having elected people to govern those who choose the sideline are the real problem. You’re elected to govern in this Dail not the next one.
Hello to all the lads blindly hoping Mick Barry loses his seat because some lad with a cameraphone told them he was a ‘communist’.
Mick has a smile that could light up Cork North Central
“Queer activists” no wonder the people rejected him
have your say