Chris Maclean: this sporting life

This morning I received two letters from Sky television advising me of a recent court case where they prosecuted a licensee for illegally showing satellite television sport.

There is an unpleasant smugness about it.

There is a playground "Ner, ner, ner, ner, ner" feel to it like they have told us before and now they have been proven right.

It is a pity really.

The fact is that most of the sporting events of interest used to be on terrestrial television for free. But somehow, in a decade characterised by much of what we had for free being taken away and sold back to us, these events became the property of Sky who then only allowed people who paid extra to see them.

Two distinct consequences emerged. Firstly, only those who could pay for it saw it, hence the emergence of sports bars. Secondly, having created the exclusivity of these sporting events the owners then maximised the potential by creating new bigger, better tournaments and by changing all the timings to maximise income.

Why have 11 simultaneous football matches when, if you take out the best matches and spread them around, you can create several different sporting occasions?

For the first part, the emergence of sports bars in urban areas is logical and sensible. But in rural areas where pubs try to provide facilities for all the people within their communities, the use of Sky is prohibitively expensive. So there is a migration of young people to sports bars throughout the weekend.

Secondly the spread of sports over the weekend has created strange changes in the pattern of drinking. Now, on Sunday afternoons, many young men, and women, watch the big match in a pub. It is hugely popular and can be rowdy. I am pleased this happens in the sports bars and, if they are prepared to pay the premium, they should get the yield.

But now the football season is closed and Sky hasn't yet invented a captivating sport to persuade the drinkers to stay in the sports bars. So they are spilling out to other pubs..

Sunday saw a group of noisy lads playing darts in my bar.

Therefore, on Sunday afternoons during the summer, I may start playing modern jazz. That should sort it.