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Another UK Pub owner fined for "Grey Market" Satellite TV

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Landlord fined for showing live TV football

9:10am Friday 5th September 2008



A LANDLORD has been ordered to pay almost £5,000 after he illegally showed three football matches on televisions in his pub.

Andrew Trainer, the landlord of the Bay Mare in Blackburn Road, Bolton, screened the matches without paying Sky for the necessary commercial contract.

Pubs are required by law to pay thousands of pounds for the right to show Premier League football matches, with an annual charge based on the rateable value of the premises.

Bolton Magistrates’ Court yesterday heard that up to 20 people watched last year’s Premier League clashes between Liverpool and Manchester United on December 16, Derby and Blackburn on December 30, and Sheffield United and Manchester City in the FA Cup on January 27 this year.

Trainer, aged 44, said the pub already had a contract with Sky when he took over in 2005, but that he felt £9,600 was too expensive.

He said he cancelled the deal and paid £650 to a local company to install equipment so he could pick up English football games from DigitAlb, an Albanian satellite broadcaster.

Danielle Graham, prosecuting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), said the only evidence to show that Trainer had a contract with DigitAlb was an invoice for the installation of the equipment.

The court heard that investigators went to the Bay Mare on three occasions, when they saw the Sky Sports logo displayed on the screen.

Ms Graham said the only way this logo could legally appear is through contracts with Sky or Virgin Media, and Trainer did not have such a contract.

She said: “You weren’t showing it using a foreign satellite provider. Foreign satellite is a red herring.

“The Sky Sports logo was present on the screen and you knew it.”

Trainer was fined £2,400 and ordered to pay £2,342 costs, plus a £15 victim surcharge.
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MHO:Those blokes over there really get beat up by Sky.