Pub foreign satellite window 'closed'
The "window of opportunity" for screening foreign satellite football in pubs has closed, says a high-profile former foreign satellite supplier.
Tony Holman said the opportunity to use EU-based systems came after the High Court referred the dispute between the Premier League and foreign satellite suppliers and users to the European Court of Justice in June 2008.
Writing in this week's Morning Advertiser, he said: "This window existed because it would, in my opinion, be impossible to prosecute anyone using a European system until after the court case, which was, at the time, expected to take place sometime between October 2009 and October 2010.
"That loophole is now firmly closed and the practice must stop with immediate effect."
Holman, who is also boss of major pub awnings supplier Crown, said his involvement in foreign systems started in June 2008.
He said the cut-off date for the window of opportunity was October 2009 — "a decision could be announced at any time shortly thereafter, and that decision would always prevent the continued use of foreign systems commercially."
Illegal
Holman, formerly associated with supplier Euroview, also said non-EU systems are illegal because the arguments in favour of foreign satellites are based on the principle of free movement of goods within the EU.
Morning Advertiser legal editor Peter Coulson said: "Tony Holman is right to describe the 2008-9 period as an opportunity, because with a referral to the European Court it was difficult for the Premier League to pursue individual licensees through their enforcement agency.
"However, non-EU satellite suppliers and their customers continue to be targeted because they have no defence and are clearly breaching copyright.
"The plain fact is that Sky has paid the Premier League a huge sum for an exclusive copyright in the UK and based on previous decided cases it seems likely to me that the referral will go in its favour — as apparently does Mr Holman."
Court battle
Meanwhile, the Morning Advertiser has learnt that European courts are set to make a judgment on a landmark foreign satellite case in the spring of 2011.
The MA understands once host Karen Murphy's appeal at the European Court of Justice is heard on 5 October 2010, it will take until the spring for the judge to make his decision on how EU law should be implemented.
The judgment will take the form of answers to the questions, posed by the High Court in England, about how EU law should be interpreted in this case.
It is then up to the High Court to apply the law, as defined by the EU, to Murphy's case, and reach its own conclusion.
