TV spy in the pub penalises Sky subscription dodgers
Simon Bowers
Friday November 5, 2004
The Guardian
Sharp-eyed sports fans may have noticed a discreet pint-glass logo flash up in the corner of TV screens at their local pub during football matches and other sporting events last weekend.
And, contrary to bar room banter, it does not mean: "Time you bought another round".
Yesterday Sky revealed the "pint-glass bug" had been piped into pub broadcasts as part of its campaign to weed out attempts to dodge the satellite broadcaster's controversial new subscription charges, which have more than trebled in some pubs.
Inspectors from the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact), who are more used to policing bootleg video and DVD distributors, are collaborating with Sky on the campaign and have begun a covert tour of pubs across Britain.
Legitimate pub subscribers have also been invited to blow the whistle on competitors suspected of fiddling Sky's regime. If the pint-glass symbol is absent from screens at designated times, a licensee can be reported by anyone watching and exposed as a subscription dodger.
In the last 14 months, there have been 500 criminal prosecutions and 300 civil cases relating to licensees caught attempting to show Sky broadcasts on the cheap. A further 90 cases are being investigated by police.
Sky, which has about 35,000 legitimate pub and club subscribers, said those caught fiddling its system face fines of up to £5,000 and a criminal record.
Sky's shop-a-rival campaign comes as relations between the satellite broadcaster and the pub trade have reached an all-time low. Over the summer, it announced that the cost of its Premiership pay-per-view service would rise this season from an average of just under £400 to about £1,500.
Despite 30% of pub customers refusing to sign up to the service, Ian Holden, who leads Sky's business broadcasting division, defended the move in an interview in yesterday's Morning Advertiser trade magazine.
"More pubs are taking Prem Plus than I thought would do," he said. "The pubs that have taken it are getting a huge benefit. An extra 2 million people went to the pub to watch a game on the first Prem Plus Saturday this season."
He refused to rule out further price rises next year, insisting that subscription levels should reflect the amount paid for media rights. Sky's latest three-year Premiership deal cost £1.1bn and it has since ac quired rights to rugby union matches.
Many licensees nevertheless feel Sky is abusing its exclusive broadcast rights in order to squeeze cash out of an already struggling industry. Beer consumption in Britain's pubs has fallen by almost 2% over the last year, under pressure from cut-price promotions in supermarkets.
Dennis Griffiths, who runs the Miner's Rest pub in Barnsley, refused to sign up Sky's Prem Plus service this season. "They are trying to price us out of the market totally. They want to force the customer to have it [the Premiership pay-per-view service] at home," he said.
to watch the beautiful game as the Sov and Duke can't afford it...