Premier League television rights shaken by European Court of Justice ruling
A pub landlady has won the right to use a foreign satellite decoder to show Premier League matches.
Karen Murphy, a Portsmouth landlady, used a Greek satellite decoder to broadcast the matches. The FA Premier League brought a prosecution under s 297(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Ruling in Murphy v FA Premier League (C-403-08, C-429-08) the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that the way the Premier League sells its rights, on an exclusive territory-by-territory basis, breaches EU law.
Alex Haffner, senior associate at international law firm SNR Denton, said: “Principles of free movement of goods and services dictate that measures designed specifically to prevent the cross-border trade of equipment used to view broadcasts, in this case, viewing cards enabling access to the Greek broadcasts, are unlawful.
“At the same time, however, the court has held that EU law does not prevent the Premier League from being able to claim copyright in certain aspects of the broadcasts. It also held that their transmission in a pub does constitute a ‘communication to the public’, which requires the authorisation of the rights holder.”
The case will now return to the High Court for a final ruling. If confirmed, UK consumers can lawfully watch Premier League matches by subscribing to cheap satellite feeds from other member states.
According to Stephen Smith, partner at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, the Premier League and other European rights holders now have four options.
“One option would be for the Premier League to launch its own TV channel to screen games so that it avoids auctioning the rights to other providers to resell,” he said.
“The Premier League could decide to issue licences only for certain EU countries which generate a high level of income for the rights—excluding some countries such as Greece. Issuing non-exclusive licences is one option, but it is unlikely to be favoured by the Premier League because it would dramatically decrease the price that the rights would fetch.
“Issuing a pan-European licence to a single broadcaster is an option, but there are very few broadcasters who would be able to compete for such rights. That means the rights would not fetch such a high price.”
