http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/04/premier-league-tv-coverage
'However, the ECJ said live match coverage itself was not covered by copyright protection, although the Premier League could claim ownership of FAPL-branded opening video sequences, theme music, on-screen graphics and highlights of previous matches.
This means that as long as the FAPL and BSkyB ensure that match coverage includes enough copyright elements pubs will not be allowed to show foreign broadcasts.'
expect to see a big 'SKY' and 'PREMIER LEAGUE' icon appearing in the corner of your screen any time soon!
what do you think will be the effect of this?
i think a pan-european deal would be a disaster for fans, due to the additional costs sky - who would most probably win a monopoly on european coverage - would incur (and no doubt, pass on to the fans) in having to compete with the other european broadcasters.
i'd like to see the prem bypass all the broadcasters and sell each game at a flat rate across europe on a game by game basis, and online too, so we don't have to give mr murdoch 30 quid a month for a diet of stoke vs wigan.
the other alternative is to go with a spanish system of each club selling it's own rights (although given that has turned la liga into a glorified SPL i don't see that as a positive thing).
it's interesting from the club's perspective that the prem can't hold copyright over live coverage - do they (the clubs)? could they now show it on their own tv channels?
interesting ruling
posted on 4/10/11
So interesting that no-one is bothered
Good article
posted on 4/10/11
ah, robbing hoody, another scouse muppet for the filter...
posted on 4/10/11
this is a landmark in sports broadcasting.
now that households pubs and clubs can legally shop around for cheaper deals with foreign encoders It will open the floodgates for foreign competeition to Sky for broadcasting live PL games. It eliminates the astronomic fee that Sky have to pay the PL for exclusivity in the UK overnight. Clubs will now receive much less TV money that some PL clubs depend on for survival. Wages will have to drop especially at smaller clubs who atm seem to be able to pay some of their players over 50K a week! That's due to TV money.
Big clubs will now probably push to make their own TV deals not necessarily with Sky.
This is massive. The gulf between rich and poor in the PL will become unsummountable? I can see some clubs getting into difficulties over this too.
posted on 4/10/11
@Red
It's only households that can buy foreign subscriptions...
But yes BSkyB will want to pay a lot less when the next round of bidding is happening. But the international selling of the Prem TV rights is currently less than the UK alone so one would imagine that they would try to hike that to compensate.
posted on 4/10/11
well pubs and clubs can show live games but it cant broadcast Sky's own graphics and sequences.
To get round this Sky will have to broadcast games with huge Sky logos on the screen at all times or even on the pitch, like Rugby advertising.
However if Clubs go their own way and negotiate their own TV deals they could sell to pubs and clubs.