Sky looks to tighten loophole

Sky is acting to close a loophole after a licensee was repeatedly allowed to cancel his subscription and then renew it over a six-year period.

Tim Welford, licensee at the Blue Boar, in Poole, Dorset, claims he has been able to book Sky for 30-day periods and then cancel the service until the next time it was required.

But he has now been told by the satellite operator he must sign a minimum 12-month contract.

Mr Welford said he is only interested in showing rugby matches such as the current Lions tour, and does not need the service for other sports.

He pointed out that the majority of rugby internationals are covered by terrestrial television.

"It seems crazy to me there is not a package where I can pay for only the matches that I want to show," he said.

"It would mean Sky get about £700 a-year from me, but after the British Lions tour I'm going to cancel my subscription before I end up paying as much as £10,000."

A spokeswoman for Sky said: "Our commercial contract has always stated that it is for a 12-month period.

"We've made no changes to our contract which would have allowed for this anomaly to have happened, however, we are now fully investigating the matter."

She added that Sky was only allowed to offer pay-per-view options when these types of rights have been agreed with the sport's governing body.

Sky currently only offers a pay-per-view service to pubs for games shown as part of its Premiership Plus facility.