We can all make our own choices

LETTER writer “On the ball” was interested in other readers’ views on the subject of Sky insisting commercial establishments have the relevant subscription with them in order to show Premier League football.

Sky is a commercial enterprise and, as such, entitled to expect payment for its service. If you don’t like the price don’t partake of the service. If enough people/businesses adopted that attitude they might revisit their pricing!

Personally I believe both the cost of private and commercial subscriptions to be ridiculously high but I choose to subscribe.

As such I’d have no sympathy for those receiving the same service illegally being forced to pay Sky accordingly.

I believe a change to the law came into force on June 15 2016.

If a pub shows an unauthorised broadcast of a Premier League match then this is a breach of copyright.

This change in the law makes it more straightforward for Sky to successfully prosecute anyone who broadcasts a Premier League match without the relevant commercial subscription.

Awards of damages for breach are high. Knowing this, a publican has a simple choice, either enter into the relevant commercial agreement with Sky or run the risk of high penalties for failure to do so. It’s a simple choice to do one or the other and offers protection to those publicans who choose not to broadcast illegally, making a business decision that it’s worth their while to do so. I’ll quite often go into town with friends to watch a specific sporting event, be it football, golf, boxing etc. As such we’ll choose a pub that’s showing the event. I’ve no doubt the pubs showing these know it’s to their advantage or they wouldn’t do so. If a landlord truly believes fewer people are watching a service they pay a lot of money for then I’m sure they would simply cancel their subscription. I’m getting to the stage where I’m considering cancelling my own. These hefty fees are required to maintain £4-5 billion agreements with the Premier League to broadcast their “product”. It can’t be just me who thinks by continuing to pay these I’m enabling premiership footballers to maintain their own ever-increasing ridiculous salaries. A quick way to put an end to this would be for current subscribers to call up en masse and cancel their subscriptions — but that’s another discussion! We all have choices.

Ian Fraser.