Licensees being issued with legal notices over foreign satellites

Licensees showing Premiership football using foreign satellite suppliers are being issued with legal notices and letters telling them it is "illegal".

Media Protection Services (MPS), which is conducting prosecutions on behalf of the Premier League, has operatives touring the country checking whether pubs are using the foreign satellites to show games.

It has already sent out thousands of letters from broadcasters such as ART, the Arabic broadcaster, with a legal notice telling pubs to stop transmitting. And more licensees are set to be issued with the warning as the Premier League has renegotiated its foreign broadcast rights.

All broadcasters will be issuing letters and putting warnings on transmissions detailing where they are licensed to broadcast. Some licensees have been acquitted for claiming they were unaware the foreign satellites were illegal and have used the defence of "subjective dishonesty".

Ray Hoskin, managing director of MPS, said this was a first warning to licensees. If they choose to ignore this they face prosecution.

He said: ³We go into the pub and identify which supplier they are using. We will then deliver a letter from the foreign broadcaster stating the licensee cannot use the foreign card for transmission. This is their warning that they will be prosecuted."

Dan Johnson, chief spokesman for the Premier League, added: "We are trying to give publicans enough information. This is another part of trying to inform them on the legal position.² Tony Payne, chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers¹ Associations, said: ³The warnings will give licensees no defence. They need to go back and get their money off the people that sold them the equipment."