Pub fined £5,000 for illegally screening Leicester City matches.

[Wymsey]

Is the Local Hero any good?

[FireFox]

Hmm, some guy from the 60s saying not to televise games because it will hurt attendance, reminds me of something.

 

Different sport, different country, and a single team, not the whole league, but still...

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/sports/hockey/when-ownership-changed-to-rocky-wirtz-in-2007-so-did-the-blackhawks.html?_r=0

 

 

But many credit [the Chicago Blackhawks'] ascendancy most of all to a change in ownership.

Bill Wirtz, the owner from 1966 until his death in 2007... declined to allow the team’s home games to be shown on television, thinking that it would hurt attendance

Besides the poor play, attendance was awful, and the financial situation was poor.

Rocky Wirtz reversed many of his father’s policies, including putting home games on television, and he brought in modern marketing and business practices. He hired outside executives from the Chicago Cubs, and sought the advice of Jerry Reinsdorf, the chairman of the Chicago Bulls.

Despite Bill Wirtz’s fears, putting games on TV did not drive away fans: The Blackhawks led the N.H.L. in attendance this season.

[jammie82uk]

Does that mean streamed games are actually legal then. Whenever I've watched them, there's none of the things you describe, only the game.

Yes as long as it doesn't involve anything that belong to the premier league

I haven't seen a game that doesn't include at least one of the mentioned things copyrighted by the premier league

[filbertway]

Not really - the argument that if manchester uniteds 3pm kickoff was available on tv, Rochdale would see a decrease in attendance is more than a bit daft; no-one who would have gone to Rochdale is going to stay away because Man Utd are on tv, they can already watch the game if they want very simply. People will already watch on streams, so it's time to stop living in the dark ages and pretending it's a bad thing.

I missed a few Coalville games last year as I was able to stream Leicester games. I'm pretty sure that if all Premier League games were available in pubs for 3pm kick offs, non league and lower league attendances would actually take a hit.

[The Doctor]

I missed a few Coalville games last year as I was able to stream Leicester games. I'm pretty sure that if all Premier League games were available in pubs for 3pm kick offs, non league and lower league attendances would actually take a hit.

I think you're massively overestimating the number that go to non league games on a weekly basis but don't support the side. Most who would watch on tv already do on the streams available or go down to pubs like the lamplighters to watch it

[davieG]

They should allow beam backs for away games, this wouldn't adversely affect lower league attendances and it would keep the money in football/the club.

 

Would help to justify/pay for having a big screen out side the stadium.

[GaelicFox]

Matches Scheduled to be shown between 3 and 5 pm on a Saturday

Premier League and Football League matches which are scheduled to be played between 3 and 5 pm on a Saturday afternoon are not legally allowed to be shown on television as provided for by the Broadcasting Act 1996.

This is due to two main factors:

To encourage people to attend the actual match

To encourage people to play and be involved at grass roots football which usually kicks off at a similar time on a Saturday

Often pubs try and get around this provision however by showing matches which are screened by satellite in other countries.

What is the current position in the way which football broadcasts are shown in the UK?

The Football Association Premier League (FAPL) Ltd is the organizational body which both owns and runs the English Premier League. It is made up of all the clubs involved in the Premier League and most importantly owns the rights to broadcast the Premier League matches.

These rights are then sold to companies such as BskyB and ESPN in order to be able to show the games live, to create highlights of the matches and to create packages to sell to foreign audiences. Foreign broadcasters will then pay these companies for these packages and the ability to show the games abroad.

Viewers in the UK will then be charged to subscribe to these services. If a pub or other licensed premises wishes to subscribe to this service they will have to pay an amount which is significantly higher than that paid by individual households.

How do some pubs get around this?

Certain companies sell specific equipment to UK pubs which allows them to watch the foreign feeds of UK matches without having to pay the subscription to the UK licensees of FA Premier League matches – Sky and ESPN.

This equipment is in the form of decoder cards which enables the encrypted feed sent to the foreign stations to be decoded and shown in the UK.

This in turn enables pubs to show matches without subscribing to either Sky or ESPN. In certain cases pubs which do subscribe to these services also have decoder cards enabling them to show matches at 3pm on a Saturday breaching the rule stated above.

Is this illegal?

It is clearly illegal for licensed premises to show matches at 3pm on a Saturday but the laws in relation to the decoder equipment is a little less clear cut.

Breach of Copyright

In relation to this that FA Premier League have argued that the use of this decoder equipment is in breach of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 which it states provides them with the right to charge for access to the content which it has its rights in.

Illegal Decoder Equipment

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 and the European Commission Conditional Access Directive define illicit devices which is used to decode encrypted data which the use of is clearly illegal and infringes the rights that the FA Premier League has in the showing of their matches.

Often however, problems arise when the equipment used has been purchased legitimately in another European Union Member State and then imported into that European Union Member State legitimately. The term illicit device contained with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is argued to be limited to pirate or counterfeit decoders and therefore does not include decoders procured in this manner.

This is a question which is currently before the European Court of Justice.

Is selling rights to football matches exclusively a breach of Competition Law?

An agreement to limit goods or services sold to certain territories is usually held to infringe Article 81 of the EC Treaty which prohibits agreements between parties which have the effect of reducing competition on that particular market.

However, the broadcasting of football is often held to be a special case in relation to Article 81 of the EC Treaty as carving up the territories is thought to be the only way in which companies are able to make the money back which they have spent on procuring the rights in the first place.

It has also been argued that effectively prohibiting the selling of the decoder equipment is restricting trade between European Union Member States which is effectively prohibited by the European Union by Articles 28-29 of the EC Treaty.

All these arguments are currently before the European Court of Justice so currently if your pub is showing matches in this manner you are likely to face court action. If however, the European Court of Justice finds against the FA Premier League it is likely that the way football matches are shown in local pubs will change dramatically.

[JadeFalcon]

if it were not for foreign feeds, i'd have a 640 mile round trip every weekend

[Guest]

if it were not for foreign feeds, i'd have a 640 mile round trip every weekend

Plastic 

[ousefox]

I go watch York a lot less due to me watching a stream whenever I can't get to a Leicester game. I definitely think it would make a difference if 3pms were readily available and legal.

[filbertway]

I go watch York a lot less due to me watching a stream whenever I can't get to a Leicester game. I definitely think it would make a difference if 3pms were readily available and legal.

 

The numbers are small, but I think you'd get a lot of groups of people going to watch either their prem team or a big game at 3pm rather than their local team.

 

Even losing 20-30 off the usual gate numbers can be quite a big loss for the lower teams. In winter if it's the choice between a match on at the pub or going to watch your local team in the cold. You'll probably be more inclined to stay in the pub and watch the game rather than go to the game. I know I probably would if it was a run of the mill league game.