Sky and Setanta facing a live football coverage shake-up

Posted by Michael Sawh on Fri 23 Jan 2009

A ruling to rock English football

As we approach another weekend of probable FA Cup giant killings the biggest upset could in fact be set for off the pitch. The marshallers of seeing Steven Gerrard and co. on screen could be faced with a substantial financial hit if a ruling on the right for pubs to show live football is passed.

In a week where the the sport has sought to clamp down on online football streaming pirates, Sky and newcomers to the Premier League game Setanta, currently ask pub landlords to cough up around £9,000 a season to give their punters all the live football they can scoff down.

Publicans who are buying up pirated decoders from Greece to show the 3pm kick-off games live on their premises are arguing that they have bought the right to broadcast legitimately.

If the ruling is passed in favour of the pubs to continue showing games on a Saturday afternoon it could change the way the Premier league currenty sell their rights to the two broadcasters.

The Premier League currently have a £2.7 billion deal agreed with Sky and Setanta to show Premier league football over three years. While the armchair fans will be lapping up more televised action down their local boozer, this could be a credit crunching tackle dealt to Jeff Stelling and his afternoon results show antics.

Link: Guardian