But in a
complex judgment, the ECJ also appears to have given the Premier League grounds
to launch a further crackdown on pubs screening the same games to their
customers.
The ruling,
brought following an appeal by Portsmouth landlady Karen Murphy, raises a
number of issues for the Premier League and its broadcast partners, as well as
for consumers.
Murphy
appealed to the ECJ after being convicted and fined £8,000 for showing matches
in her pub using a Greek decoder card instead of the more expensive Sky card.
She argued that restricting from where she could purchase live matches was
contrary to the principle of a free internal market.
The judgment
is likely to see her conviction quashed when the UK Appeal Court takes the
European findings into account, but ironically it could pave the way for a
redoubled crackdown on publicans using overseas decoder cards.
The ECJ has
drawn a crucial distinction between individuals watching at home and matches
being screened in commercial premises.
The judgment
found that granting broadcasters territorial exclusivity over rights and
preventing viewers from watching satellite feeds that originated from other
European countries was “contrary to European law”.
It went on
to say, however, that “the screening in a pub of football-match broadcasts
containing protected works requires the authorisation of the author of those
works”. Currently, the only broadcasters authorised to show games in the UK by
the Premier League are Sky and ESPN, but not Saturday afternoon 3pm games.
This
distinction has been interpreted as making it legal to watch games currently
only broadcast overseas at home in the UK, but not in pubs or other commercial
premises.
The judgment
also offers the Premier League, and other sports that will be affected by the
ruling, significant comfort in relation to copyright.
The court
ruled that while matches themselves were not protected by Premier League
copyright, aspects of the production package sold to overseas broadcasters are.
These include the opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem,
pre-recorded highlights packages and graphics.
The Premier
League welcomed the copyright protections and the ruling against pubs showing
matches, with sources indicating the ruling was significantly less hostile than
feared.
The Premier
League rights model has not been declared illegal in its entirety but the
league is still likely to reconsider how it sells its rights for its next deal,
which runs from 2013-2016.
Crucially,
it appears to have shored up Sky’s pubs and clubs business which is a major
source of revenue, underwriting their £1.2 billion rights deal with the Premier
League.
One measure
the League is likely to use is to increase the amount of graphics they use,
ensuring that copyrighted 'works’ are on screen even more often.
The League
is also apparently sanguine about the prospect of individuals buying overseas
subscriptions to allow them to watch Saturday matches.
Currently,
overseas providers have rights to all 380 games in a season while Sky and ESPN
share just 138, none of them at 3pm on a Saturday. Buying them will not be
cheap, however: a Greek Nova card, the type used by Murphy, with Greek
commentary, costs £42 for domestic users, more than a basic Sky subscription.
It seems
certain that the League will have to re-examine its rights model. The ruling
makes it clear that territorial exclusivity, the basis of the League’s overseas
rights arrangements, breaches European law. This means the League will consider
selling rights on a pan-European basis and hiking prices, or blanking out
certain countries to maintain the value of more lucrative domestic rights.
European
providers contribute £350 million over the course of the League’s three-year TV
deals, against £1.78 billion from domestic rights.
A statement
said: “The Premier League will continue to sell its audio-visual rights in a
way that best meets the needs of our fans across Europe and the broadcast
markets that serve them but is also compatible with European Law.”
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