• Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • Media Info
    • Terms & Conditions for Advertisers
    • Mechanical Data

Broadband TV News

Independent. Since 2003

  • Home
  • News Line
    • Central & East Europe
    • People
  • TV
    • On Demand/VOD
    • IPTV
    • Cable
    • Satellite
    • Terrestrial
    • Distribution
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Columns
    • Chris Dziadul
    • Julian Clover
    • Robert Briel
  • Events
    • Events Diary
    • BTN Events
    • Events Coverage
    • Submit the details of your event
  • Features
  • Resources
    • White Papers

European Court to rule on pub football

December 13, 2009 13.47 Europe/London By Robert Briel

football_in_pubThe European Court has announced the postponement of its ruling on the viewing of Premier League football in pubs to early 2010. The verdict of the Court could have big implications on the way European broadcasters acquire movie and sports rights in the future. The European Court in Luxembourg will rule on the case at the request of the London High Court in an action brought by the Premier League against a company called QC Leisure, which sells subscriptions of foreign pay-TV platforms to people in the UK. In this particular instance, QC Leisure sold a subscription to the Greek Nova TV platform to Karen Murphy, the owner of a pub in Portsmouth. She had bought a subscription to Nova in order to be able to show Premier League games to visitors of her pub, for which she paid around €890 a year.

Instead, according to the Premier League, she should have bought a special pub subscription from BSkyB at the cost of £6,000. Broadband TV News notes that the price of commercial subscription from Nova TV would presumably be closer to the Sky price than the domestic subscription, with mark-up, which was purchased.

As a result, The Premier League started proceeding against QC Leisure, who sold the subscription to Ms Murphy. At the time, Dan Johnson, chief spokesperson for the FAPL, said: “The Premier League has said from day one that it’s committed to prosecuting suppliers of illegal satellite equipment and this action shows we are true to our word. It also sends a message that we are seeking to protect publicans from mis-information and mis-selling that enables the likes of QC Leisure (QCL) to make significant amounts of money, ultimately at the expense of pubs and clubs.”

In order to back up the claim, the FAPL produced letters from four international pay TV platforms, ART, SuperSport (Nova), Canal+ and DigitAlb, stating they have no right to show Premiership football in the UK. The verdict could have big implications for the way broadcasting rights are sold in Europe. European Commissioner Viviane Reding is in favour of making it possible for broadcasters to buy pan-European rights rather than per country per territory, as is now the case. Under the free exchange of goods and services, right holders would no longer be allowed to sell their rights per country or territory.

This would mean people in each European country would – in theory – have access to pay TV platforms from other European countries. Of course, this is already practice with a huge grey market in smart cards, but strictly speaking it is illegal. The big fear is that allowing cross-border subscriptions, the price of live events and major Hollywood blockbusters would come down because the would no longer be exclusive to each broadcaster. However, there is no evidence that this indeed would happen, as cross border reception would be very much a minority issue, because of language issues.

It is our take that it would help to fight piracy by allowing existing market practices. The public showing of live sports events (and of movies as well) is a different case. The fact that a pub subscribes to a foreign satellite platform does not include the right to show the match in public; it only give technical access to the signal. BSkyB sells alongside its regular subscription also special pub subscriptions, which include the right for public viewing.

In other countries, such as The Netherlands, there are special collecting agencies who sell such public viewing licences on behalf of the rights holders. So, if a pub owner in Holland would buy a subscription from the platform they would also have to buy a public screening licence from the agency on top of that.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Newsline, Regulation, Top Story Tagged With: BSkyB, European Court, Nova, Premier League, QC Leisure Edited: 14 December 2009 22:06

Avatar photo

About Robert Briel

Arnhem-based Robert covers the Benelux, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as IPTV, web TV, connected TV and OTT. Email Robert at rbriel@broadbandtvnews.com.

Latest News

  • DFB to launch FAST Channel DFB Play TV
  • Sunrise deputy CEO Severina Pascu to leave company
  • WhatsApp holds back in Russia
  • Ofcom fines Islam Channel repeated code breaches
  • Munich court rules Netflix Is infringing Broadcom HEVC patent

Most Popular

  • Munich court rules Netflix Is infringing Broadcom HEVC patent
    Munich court rules Netflix Is infringing Broadcom HEVC patent
  • Audiovisual geo-blocking end in sight
    Audiovisual geo-blocking end in sight
  • Canal+ refuses to bid for Ligue 1 rights
    Canal+ refuses to bid for Ligue 1 rights
  • MainStreaming expands DAZN Edge platform
    MainStreaming expands DAZN Edge platform
  • Sunrise deputy CEO Severina Pascu to leave company
    Sunrise deputy CEO Severina Pascu to leave company

Free Ebook

Whitepaper: Why Wi-Fi 6 is Key for ISP Success

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E client devices are entering the home in an unprecedented way, surpassing 50% market share since their introduction in 2019 (compared to four years for Wi-Fi 5). … [Download the eBook...]

Long Read

Dolby presents its Vision for pay-TV Operators

Facing challenges from all sides, pay-TV operators are in a struggle to maintain their dominance in the new world order of streaming services and smart TVs. Julian Clover speaks to Dolby’s Jason Power.

Broadband TV News

  • Subscribe
  • About us
  • Contacts
  • Logos & Pictures
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Advertising

  • Media Info
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Mechanical Data
  • Video Services

News

  • Latest
  • Central & East Europe
  • TV
  • Tech
  • Streaming
  • Cable
  • Satellite
  • Terrestrial
  • IPTV
  • Business
  • People

Events

  • Events Diary
  • BTN Events
  • Submit the details of your event
  • Media Meet & Greet

Broadband TV News

PO Box 499
Cambridge
United Kingdom
CB1 0AH
news@broadbandtvnews.com

Connect with Us

 

Copyright © 2023 Broadband TV News LLP · Log in

 

Loading Comments...