Publican subscriber Greek TV loses football appeal

The publican accessing Premier League matches via a £800 subscription to a Greek TV station instead of a £6000 subscription to BSkyB has lost her appeal. The judges made the decision based on domestic UK law and said it was clear BSkyB had an exclusive right in the UK to braodcast the games at the heart of the dispute. Lord Justice Pumfrey did say, however, that they had not yet considered arguments based on EU law and would do so in the New Year.

A league spokesman said:

"We hope that publicans and others will now heed the advice of the
courts and accept that the use of foreign satellite systems to screen
Premier League football in the UK is copyright theft, pure and simple"

Which is exactly the sort of comment you'd like to see iced on the top of his hat just before he is made to eat it, hopefully when the same High Court judges politely explain that the publican's right to access Greek TV is perfectly in tune with EU competition law.