Sky Challenge over TV rights

[k2bluesky]

All power to the pub owner challenging Sky over he right to be sole provider of Premiership football in the UK, this is the EEC where trade is supposed to be allowed between countries so why can't she buy her Sky from Greece at a much cheaper rate than they rip people off in this country for, hope she wins, it will bring some of the players/clubs down to earth.
The case is being heard in Luxembourg so no bias UK judges.
Just heard on 5 live, an EEC preliminary hearing judge has said Sky do not have the right to prevent pubs buying Prem from outside UK, so maybe a massive change is on the cards over money in the next Sky deal.

 

[Jim D]

Or maybe they'll just charge the UK price to all European broadcasters?

 

[Gritt23]

Or maybe they'll just charge the UK price to all European broadcasters?

They won't sell anywhere near as much at that price. Don't you think they are already pricing it at what they believe maximises revenue?

 

[adrian29uk]

All power to the pub owner challenging Sky over he right to be sole provider of Premiership football in the UK, this is the EEC where trade is supposed to be allowed between countries so why can't she buy her Sky from Greece at a much cheaper rate than they rip people off in this country for, hope she wins, it will bring some of the players/clubs down to earth.
The case is being heard in Luxembourg so no bias UK judges.
Just heard on 5 live, an EEC preliminary hearing judge has said Sky do not have the right to prevent pubs buying Prem from outside UK, so maybe a massive change is on the cards over money in the next Sky deal.

It really amazes me what SKY get away with. The one that really annoys me is Eurosport. The rest of europe get this free of charge, unless anyone knows different. However the only way to get it in the UK is to get SKY and pay for British Eurosport.

However I got around this by adding an LNB to my dish and pointing it at the hotbird sat. Ok the comm is in German, however I can still watch the tour de france and other events free without paying SKY. Granted SKY does have some good stuff on their channels, however I do hope this pub owner wins. People should be able to make the choice.

Its the same with Windows. Aparently Microsoft are being taken to court, because people should be given a refund if they don't want Windows on their machine. This is why Microsoft sell so many os. Ok you have the choice of buying a pc without Windows for non branded PC's, however if your buying a branded PC you don't have the choice. Hopefully this will change.

 

[Gritt23]

I think the pricing structure is all wrong on Sky. The packages are all too inter-twined, and cancelling say The Movies would save you a ridiculously small amount. I'd LOVE them to package the sports onto seperate sport channels, and you could then decide which ones you pay for and which ones you don't. If they had all live football on SS1, then I'd happily switch that off to save a tenner a month, but as it stands I couldn't possibly cancel Sky Sports as a whole because I live NFL and Cricket too much, and unlike football, there isn't enough coverage elsewhere to keep me happy. As a result I pay for a product which has football priced in, when that's not what I'm buying it for, and I'd happily live without.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The opinion will be handed down in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice , in Luxembourg. Decision to be made within 3 months and then a High Court case in the UK.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

It really amazes me what SKY get away with. The one that really annoys me is Eurosport. The rest of europe get this free of charge, unless anyone knows different. However the only way to get it in the UK is to get SKY and pay for British Eurosport.

.

Its part of the basic package on Virgin Media.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I hope the pub chappy wins. It will certainly change things if he does. The only people who benefit from the current set-up are a very large number of very very average players.

 

[willyfantastic]

you can buy eurosport on digital can you not?

also, the only redeeming feature of eurosport with sky is that if u have a sky package but cant afford sports, eurosport comes under 'news' package so u can get it for an extra quid a month, not too bad really.

 

[BensGrandad]

Apparently she has won her case and this is going to cause great problems for Sky, Premiership clubs and other sports.

 

[Superphil]

Sky charge much much higher rates to pubs and clubs than to domestic accounts. I imagine it's the same in Greece/Europe where the satellite broadcaster charges more for use in bars etc, than it does in private houses. If that is the case, then so long as the UK pub is paying commercial prices to the Greek boradcaster, then I think they should win the case. Would certainly makse sure that Sky drop their prices to pubs and clubs here, never know, might even get Sky in a local pub round here.

 

[Easy 10]

The Nevill in Hove will no doubt be watching this with interest. They show Sky Sports in there via an Italian feed (with Italian commentry).

Sky Sports is prohibitively expensive for pubs to run on a commercial licence - the pub has to pull in a LOT of punters to make it worthwhile. I think my local pays something like £400 a week for Sky and ESPN and its only a little pub.

 

[durrington gull]

This will have massive implications for the next Premiership league deal and certainly drive the price down. The bubble has been burst!

 

[Gritt23]

I really do think the pub trade need this. Pubs are empty all over teh country, and closing at an alarming rate of knotts. If they can all have affordable Sky Sports (who listens to the commentary in the pub anyway) then suddenly it's practical to put a screen up in loads more pubs. There's no doubting "live sports" draw people into a pub with their mates, but just rarely in such great numbers as to justify the exorbitant figures Sky have been charging for it.

I'm just surprised;
1. it's taken this long for a challenge,
2. it's not a group action, backed by the funding of a big chain of pubs.

 

[Gritt23]

This will have massive implications for the next Premiership league deal and certainly drive the price down. The bubble has been burst!

Here's hoping. Wages just HAVE to come down, because it's just obscene.

Btw, why do we always consider a players wage in terms of "per week"? There aren't many of us who talk about wages in a "per week" basis, just always seems odd to me. Other sports don't do it, you here of annual salary, or even just the total value of a contract, such as "rookie, Matthew Stafford signs a $75m 5 year deal", it doesn't then get broken down and talked about as $288k per week.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The decision if upheld by the ECJ also means that Sky can legitimately offer subscriptions to ex-pats all over Europe under the EU television without frontiers directive. All the bars in Spain and Portugal showing Sky will become official customers.

 

[durrington gull]

I really do think the pub trade need this. Pubs are empty all over teh country, and closing at an alarming rate of knotts. If they can all have affordable Sky Sports (who listens to the commentary in the pub anyway) then suddenly it's practical to put a screen up in loads more pubs. There's no doubting "live sports" draw people into a pub with their mates, but just rarely in such great numbers as to justify the exorbitant figures Sky have been charging for it.

I'm just surprised;
1. it's taken this long for a challenge,
2. it's not a group action, backed by the funding of a big chain of pubs.

Your right - the 'issue' will now be that Sky nor anyone else will pay anything like the last deal of about £1 billion as they will not have 'exclusive' rights. This will result in almost certainly less money the next time round. When you consider that the Premiership is built on this TV deal the bubble will burst and it could have massive consequences. Lets now hope that sanity will return!

 

[BensGrandad]

According to Radio Sussex the indication are that she has won the case and the EU will back her but apparently it takes some time to deliver the verdict but the main point is that there is no form of appeal by either party against the decision that is given.

One of the first changes will possibly be the dropping or at least reducing the parachute payments of relegated clubs.

 

[clapham_gull]

Eventually we may see a situation (common in other countries) where clubs sell their games individually to the broadcasters or more importantly direct to consumers via the web or IPTV.

Potentially a one off cost for a small United IPTV box that plugs into your broadband. You buy a season ticket decoder card from the club and get to watch all their games live.

Cuts SKY out of the equation with the clubs already complaining that they don't see enough of the massive profits that SKY generate.

That's something to think about if you worry about the balance of the Premier League.

To put it into context, Manchester United could generate more income over two or three high profile games than they do for the whole season now.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The verdict will be within the next 3 months.