Mark Daniels: Foreign satellite retailers - hold your horses!

Unsurprisingly, since the recent announcement from advocate general Kokott that her opinion is that foreign satellite broadcasts should be allowed to be sold in the UK, I've received several sales calls from alternative satellite suppliers trying to get me to sign up to their broadcast service.

But none surprised me more than a letter I received this morning. It contained a photocopy of a photocopy of a page taken from the Daily Mirror on Friday 4th February, and the salient points were circled to enhance its authenticity.

The letter that accompanied it told me all about the service they offered, and the cost - which is roughly a quarter of the price that Sky want to charge me for a similar service. It all sounds very good.

The letter even includes a conclusion: "PS The court case in the European Court has now concluded... WE HAVE WON!"

With all the press foreign satellite subscriptions have been getting at the moment, one could be forgiven for falling for this hyperbole and signing up immediately.

As many have written recently, the announcement a couple of weeks ago was merely an opinion. The next step is for that opinion to go to the European Court of Justice, and then if they side with the advocate general it has to come back to the High Court in London. It is far from over; foreign satellite broadcasters haven't won. Yet.

The letter itself includes a little hint to this in smaller print: "You can probably still get about 2 seasons out of this, maybe even three, before an enforceable judgement. Please take note … we might win …" It's fair to say that they might not, too.

So much as I agree with the advocate general's opinion and fervently hope that this does herald a new dawn for football broadcasts in pubs, I'd urge anybody else who's received this letter to heed caution. At the time of writing, showing such feeds in your pub are illegal and you could still end up with a whacking great big fine...