The days of watching the game down the pub may be over...

The Premier league has announced they are investigating pubs that are atreaming foreign tv channels in order to show premiership football matches. They believe it's a breach if copyright and could end with heavy punishments.

Because, as with any biased organisation, it's more important to punish those that take money away from you than to allow more people to access your product at a reasonable price. If they want to stop people using illegal websites or streams, then do something about sky sports extortionate price stranglehold.

to be honest all the customer has to do is not to renew their contract with sky sports and you will see the prices tumble down. i am a great believer in voting with your feet

I believe there was a test case of this recently with a landlady who steamed football from a foreign country. If I remember correctly she won, at the moment I don't think it is actually illegal to watch foreign TV... So perhaps these are empty threats?

Red614 wrote:The Premier league has announced they are investigating pubs that are atreaming foreign tv channels in order to show premiership football matches. They believe it's a breach if copyright and could end with heavy punishments.

Because, as with any biased organisation, it's more important to punish those that take money away from you than to allow more people to access your product at a reasonable price. If they want to stop people using illegal websites or streams, then do something about sky sports extortionate price stranglehold.

This is a perennial arguement. Screening certain foreign streams was held not to be in breach of the agreement with Sky, but Sky are not going to let go. At the end of the day, it's the subscribers' and advertisers' fees that provides the cash that goes into football and makes the game what it now is.

I have no problem with Sky, having had a system from day one, more than 20 years ago. It's a luxury item, for sure, but no more so than an unnecessarily new car or an extra night out each week in the pub.

Having a foreign TV subscription is legal.
However, if a pub shows a Premier League football match it is breaking copyright law if the League's logo is shown in on-screen graphics, or if the League's anthem is heard before kick-off or at half time.

Bit of sticking plaster on the screen and turn the sound down = job done!

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with sky as a way of watching football. I'm not one of the amf types who thinks tv is ruining football - it's done nothing but good. What I disagree with is their monopoly of the market.

To use the new car example you have TDA - there's many ways to buy a new car. Straight from the dealer, via a finance arrangement, part exchange, or second hand. The market is competitive for that reason. If you want to watch premiership football every week, your only option is sky sports.