FORMER Celtic star Harry Hood has hailed a European court ruling that could result in more pubs showing live football matches as a "great outcome" for landlords.
The prominent publican, who is currently locked in a battle with the Scottish Premier League over match screening, said a European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision to allow the use of foreign satellite signals would bring an end to Sky’s “exorbitant fees”.
Publican Karen Murphy was fined almost £8000 for using a cheaper Greek decoder in her Portsmouth bar to bypass controls over match screening. Yesterday she won her case and judges ruled national laws that prohibit use of foreign decoder cards are contrary to the freedom to provide services.
However, the judgment warned certain aspects of football coverage will still be protected by copyright -- including club badges, the premier league anthem and edited highlights.
Mr Hood, who owns five bars in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, said: “This is a great outcome for publicans who can now perhaps use other devices rather than paying exorbitant fees to Sky.
“People are paying something like £1700 or £1800 a month and more because they’re forced into it, almost blackmailed in a way.
“A lot of publicans will hopefully now be able to do things more affordably and show more events.”
Ms Murphy claimed she would have had to pay £7000 a year to Sky for the same coverage she paid Greek TV company Nova £800 for.
Mr Hood said his Lisini Pub Company pays Sky around £20,000 a year under the firm’s rateable value pricing scheme.
The SPL raised an action against the former footballer’s company in 2006 when he showed SPL games in his pub using a Polish broadcaster.
It sought £25,000 from the firm, but the action was put on hold to await the outcome of Ms Murphy’s case -- which has still to be referred back to the High Court in London for a final decision.
Mr Hood continued: “I feel the SPL picked on me because of who I was -- they wanted to make an example. But it looks as if what I was doing was legal after all. If the SPL decide to press ahead with the case then obviously everything will be referred to the European court.”
He added: “It’s now time for Sky to be reasonable, because if they don’t, everybody will start using foreign decoders.”
The Scottish Licensing Trade Association also welcomed the ECJ ruling and a potential increase in competition for TV coverage.
Chief executive Paul Waterson said: “For too long Sky has ran roughshod over the process here.
“We were told the alternatives to Sky were illegal, that you couldn’t show signals from anyone else but Sky, but this decision has proved this to be wrong.
“Publicans will be happy with the news and more of them will now hopefully be able to show live football when they couldn’t afford to before.
“What we needed was some competition in the market and this decision has provided it.”
A spokeswoman for the SPL said: “The ruling today has gone back to the High Court for the final decision and that decision is then subject to appeal by either side.
“We still don’t really know what the final decision will be and it still a long way off.”
A Sky spokesman said: “This is a case about the licensing arrangements of bodies like the Premier League. It will have implications for how rights are sold across Europe in future, which we are considering.
“As a broadcaster, it will remain our aim to secure high-quality content for our customers based on the rights available to us.”
The English Premier League claimed a partial victory in Ms Murphy’s case in light of the copyright restrictions. It remains unclear if matches will be allowed to be shown.
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