British pub wins battle to screen English soccer on Nova
A British court on Friday overturned the conviction of a pub manager from Portsmouth who used a Greek decoder card from Nova television to show English Premier League soccer matches.
The ruling by a High Court judge in London in Karen Murphy?s favor follows a similar decision by a European Union court last year.
The court ruling still gives the League the right to prevent the unauthorized use of its copyrights by bars and clubs, the League said in an e-mailed statement.
The Premier League, home to some of Europe?s most successful clubs including Manchester United and Liverpool, started a three-year 1.8-billion-pound (2.1-billion-euro) UK television contract in August 2010, and receives a further 1.4 billion pounds from the sale of international broadcast rights.
Murphy spent years fighting attempts to stop her from showing live soccer at her Red White and Blue Pub without a subscription to British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc?s Sky Sports.
She spent 800 pounds a year on a Greek decoder card to show games rather than 700 pounds a month for a Sky package.
[Bloomberg]
