European court advocate general approves of pubs using......

James ♠ wrote:

Cornholio wrote:

James ♠ wrote:Less people going will hit the smaller clubs straight away. Sure the prices may cheapen in the future but the immediate effect will be devastating for the small clubs.


Blame the big clubs for putting prices up, that is their fault for being greedy.

Why is European Satellite companies going to affect smaller clubs attendances?

You think people in Greece are paying to watch Hull on TV?

Lower league fans will end up stop going to games and just watch at home or at the pub where they can watch higher quality football for cheaper then what they can watch their local team for.

Scuba Steve wrote:

James ♠ wrote:

Cornholio wrote:

James ♠ wrote:Less people going will hit the smaller clubs straight away. Sure the prices may cheapen in the future but the immediate effect will be devastating for the small clubs.


Blame the big clubs for putting prices up, that is their fault for being greedy.

Why is European Satellite companies going to affect smaller clubs attendances?

You think people in Greece are paying to watch Hull on TV?

Lower league fans will end up stop going to games and just watch at home or at the pub where they can watch higher quality football for cheaper then what they can watch their local team for.

Then they are just poor fans. I wouldn't want those type of people supporting my club.

Pubs v Premier League

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Football





David Bond | 14:17 UK time, Monday, 3 October 2011











In the 19 years since the formation of the Premier League, the
value of the competition's television rights has gone from £304m to a
staggering £3.2bn.


It is one of the country's most successful exports and whenever Prime
Minister David Cameron goes on trade missions abroad, as he did to
Russia last month; he often takes chief executive Richard Scudamore with
him as an example of a thriving British business.


And yet on Tuesday the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will deliver a
ruling which could deal the League and its lucrative TV rights model a
major blow.


Unlikely though it might seem, the case all centres on a Portsmouth
pub, the Red, White and Blue, and its landlady, Karen Murphy. She was
fined back in 2006 for showing her customers live Premier League matches
accessed via a Greek service and an illegal decoder.





Mrs Murphy spoke to 5 live Investigates presenter Adrian Goldberg about the forthcoming decision


The Premier League states UK citizens should only be able to
watch live matches through Sky and, to a lesser extent, ESPN. For pubs
the cost of screening matches is high, making it attractive for them to
look for cheaper alternatives.


Mrs Murphy appealed against the decision saying that the European
Union's laws on the free movement of trade and services inside the
single market meant she should be entitled to buy her live football from
any European country she should choose.


In March, a non-binding opinion from the ECJ's advocate general
Juliane Kokot seemed to back her argument. Kokot stated that
broadcasters cannot stop customers using cheaper foreign satellite TV
services.


There is no guarantee that the court will follow that opinion
tomorrow. But even senior Premier League sources admit it is unlikely
that it will go against it.


So what does this potentially mean to the League and Sky, whose business model is so reliant on live top flight football?


The first thing to say is that tomorrow's decision is unlikely to be
clear cut. Although the Kokot advice was interpreted as a potential
setback for the League's case, the League argues it was much more
complicated than that.


And even if the court delivers a clear judgment, it is only guidance
for the UK High Court, which must then decide whether to rubber stamp
its findings.


The next point to make is that the impact on the League's rights in
Europe is likely to be negligible. Of the £1.4bn it earns from selling
its rights abroad, just £130m, less than 10 per cent, comes from Europe.


The big problem is a free for all in the UK market could seriously
damage Sky's exclusivity for which it pays £1.8bn over the three years
2010-2013. Why would Sky continue to pay that money - money which
underpins clubs' vast spending on players' wages and salaries every year
- if foreign broadcasters are given the freedom to undercut them.


In response to such a verdict Sky might feel the need to lower their
prices and therefore pay less to the League for its rights. That could
have a massive knock-on effect on clubs who are already stretched.


However the League and its principal adviser on TV rights David Kogan
have become adept at hurdling obstacles put in their path by
regulators.


In the event of a ruling which backs Mrs Murphy's appeal, the League
is likely to create one Europe-wide live TV rights package which Sky or
another pan-European broadcaster could buy for the same sort of money
Sky currently pay, if not more. They could then either show it on the
continent themselves or sub licence to foreign TV companies.


The League, which wants to start its latest auction for the 2013-2016
package before the end of the season, is therefore confident that
whatever the outcome tomorrow, its business model will continue to
thrive.


But the impact on smaller sports could be significant as the markets
for their rights will shrink. And the effect on other creative sectors
like the film industry, which also sells exclusive content territory by
territory, could be devastating.


Looking a bit further ahead the much bigger danger for football,
indeed all sports, is the rapid blurring of the lines between
distribution and access to live sport.


Rights holders used to be able to sell rights platform by platform -
TV, radio, online, mobile and so on. But it's already difficult to tell
the difference between a traditional TV and an iPad.


That will only become more blurred in the future and in response it
has become necessary for rights holders to develop time sensitive
packages with media companies now bidding for live, near live,
highlights and archive rights.


For the Premier League and other big rights holders protecting those
in the face of illegal streaming of matches from pirate websites is a
far bigger threat than the ECJ's ruling tomorrow.