UK: Pub Landlady Wins Right To Use Greek TV Decoder To Screen Premier League Football

The European Union has ruled that a pub landlady can use a foreign TV decoder to show Premier League football.
The European Court of Justice said an exclusive system of licences for the broadcasting of football matches in different EU countries – effectively stopping fans watching the broadcasts with a decoder card in other member states – is “contrary to EU law”.

But the verdict also warned: “The screening in a pub of football-match broadcasts containing protected works requires the authorisation of the author of those works.”
Such “protected works”, said the judges, could include the opening video sequence or the Premier League anthem, which is a matter for copyright.

Ms Murphy was ordered to pay almost £8,000 in fines and costs after she was taken to court by the League for using a Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to screen matches, avoiding the League’s own controls over where its matches are screened.
But the she took her case to the Luxembourg court which said that some UK pubs had started using foreign decoder cards, issued by a Greek broadcaster to subscribers resident in Greece, to access Premier League matches. The pubs buy a card and a decoder box from a dealer at prices lower than those of Sky, the holder of the UK broadcasting rights.

The judges said that, in trying to justify its restrictions, the Premier League could not claim copyright over Premier League matches themselves, as such sporting events could not be considered to be an author’s own “intellectual creation” and, therefore, to be “works” for the purposes of EU copyright law.

Even if there was such copyright protection for sporting events, banning the use of foreign decoder cards “would go beyond what is necessary to ensure appropriate remuneration for the holders of the rights concerned”, the judges went on.

“A system of exclusive licences is also contrary to EU competition law if the licence agreements prohibit the supply of decoder cards to television viewers who wish to watch the broadcasts outside the member state for which the licence is granted,” they said.
The verdict could mean a major rethink by the Premier League of its current exclusive agreements with Sky Sports – which provides the League with most of its television income – and ESPN.
(source: wales online, huffington post UK)