The European Court of Justice's decision (commented at the BBC here) in FAPL's case against the pub manager, Ms Murphy, could just undermine how satellite broadcasters maximize their revenues.
A while ago Ms Murphy was successfully convicted for using an imported Greek satellite decoder to screen the Greek version of UK Premier League football matches in her pub in Portsmouth. Good for customers and the pub you might say, but the FAPL thought this was not fair play. Ms Murphy applied to set aside her convictions -- and the matter has gone all the way to the ECJ. Their decision is that it is just fine to import Greek satellite decoders -- even if the user was less than frank about who or where they were from or what they were going to use them for, so they can be used in the UK (assuming you can see the relevant satellite).
There is a twist. It's ok to screen the football match - that's not, the ECJ say, protected by copyright. But screening the creative surrounds -- commentary, graphics, etc. added by the supplier could be a problem. So for the future can the FAPL enmesh in their creative content so intricately that it could defeat the possibility of separating out the football? Or would that exercise be seen to be an abuse of a dominant position, as being deliberately designed to prevent independent viewing of the football content?
The ECJs decision is on a reference. It is still left for the English High Court to sort out some of the details. More news on this anon.
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