I should point out it's not The FA (the Football Association) but the Premier League.
From Wiki regarding the league's formation:
Quote:
The [Premier League] would have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League license to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe
Presumably there are multiple Sky Sports feeds, the appropriate one decided by your card.
Would there need to be multiple feeds? I have no idea, but isn't what's shown in pubs the same as what you'd see at home?
There's a domestic feed for homes and also a pub feed which has more pub/men/sports-orientated adverts etc, as well as more promos for Sky Sports programming rather than Sky 1 / Sky Movies etc. So while the programming you see may be the same, the stuff between it isn't.
The pint glass is added by the box - and can be dismissed by pressing 'back up'. I wasn't aware of the pub specific feed though - though I can believe that it exists.
Murphy v Media Protection Services is actually a criminal prosecution rather than a law suit. Facts of the case are that the defendant (Karen Murphy) is a pub landlord who screened Premier League matches using a foreign satellite system (Nova from Greece). She was prosecuted for having "dishonestly received a programme included in a broadcasting service provided from a place in the United Kingdom with intent to avoid payment of any charge applicable to the reception of the programme" contrary to s.297(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and was convicted at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court. She appealed to the Crown Court and the appeal was dismissed (although the sentence was reduced). She further appealed to the High Court by way of case stated. The High Court has now made an Article 267 reference to the European Court of Justice. The High Court judgement doesn't say what the question stated to the ECJ is but it was probably along the lines of "is placing a geographical restriction on the reception of television services contrary to the freedom of movement for services provisions of the Treaties" or suchlike.
If restricting the reception of a television service was ruled illegal, it would mean huge changes in how sports rights were sold and would probably lead to huge consolidation in the European media industry and the formation of pan-European broadcasters (or at least alliances).
It would probably also lead to the end of the 3pm ban. The UK is the only country in Europe where you can't see FA Premier League matches at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, although for some reason they also restrict the Republic of Ireland to just one Saturday 3pm match. Everywhere else has multiple matches available. Not sure if this would really have the devestating effect on the lower leagues the FA seems to think it would have though.
Presumably there are multiple Sky Sports feeds, the appropriate one decided by your card.
Would there need to be multiple feeds? I have no idea, but isn't what's shown in pubs the same as what you'd see at home?
There's a domestic feed for homes and also a pub feed which has more pub/men/sports-orientated adverts etc, as well as more promos for Sky Sports programming rather than Sky 1 / Sky Movies etc. So while the programming you see may be the same, the stuff between it isn't.
It would appear that the mysterious numbers disappear when you change channel out and back again, so therefore my best guess is they are being generated by the firmware of the Sky digibox, presumably in the same way those irritating "press red to do something or other" prompts appear as soon as the ident does.
Presumably the numbers can be traced back to the original viewer card in some way, or at least where the card was originally sent. I don't believe there is anything to stop you having a card sent to an address, then taking the digibox and card to the other end of the country and using it there. Because there is no obligation to have a phone line connected to your box (unless you have Sky Multiroom) the thing will work presumably forever and day providing you keep up the monthly payments.
Presumably the numbers can be traced back to the original viewer card in some way, or at least where the card was originally sent. I don't believe there is anything to stop you having a card sent to an address, then taking the digibox and card to the other end of the country and using it there. Because there is no obligation to have a phone line connected to your box (unless you have Sky Multiroom) the thing will work presumably forever and day providing you keep up the monthly payments.
Why limit yourself to the other end of the country? This works the other end of Europe too and is how many expats and pubs get their British television. Presumably, someone will be interested in putting a stop to that kind of thing too, although I doubt Sky care as they are still getting money that they wouldn't otherwise but maybe they are required to do this kind of thing by the contract they have with the Premier League.
Because there is no obligation to have a phone line connected to your box (unless you have Sky Multiroom) the thing will work presumably forever and day providing you keep up the monthly payments.
Then how would they stop the thing working if you
don't
keep up the monthly payments? Presumably they can do to a pub landlord whatever they'd do to a non-payer. Don't they lock cards out of the encryption scheme?
The pint glass is added by the box - and can be dismissed by pressing 'back up'. I wasn't aware of the pub specific feed though - though I can believe that it exists.
The last time I played around with a box with a business subscription the pint glass was part of the picture on the pub version of the channels. I'll have to have a play at work one day
The domestic versions were mapped to channel numbers somewhere in the 900's. This is also part of the reason why Sky Sports was rarely seen in pubs in the correct aspect ratio, for a long time the pub versions were 4:3 even though the domestic versions were widescreen switchable
Presumably the numbers can be traced back to the original viewer card in some way, or at least where the card was originally sent. I don't believe there is anything to stop you having a card sent to an address, then taking the digibox and card to the other end of the country and using it there. Because there is no obligation to have a phone line connected to your box (unless you have Sky Multiroom) the thing will work presumably forever and day providing you keep up the monthly payments.
I think the issue is more to do with people streaming Sky Sports online. When they activate the numbers they'll appear on any internet streams of Sky Sports and then they can identify whose subscription is being used for it
Because there is no obligation to have a phone line connected to your box (unless you have Sky Multiroom) the thing will work presumably forever and day providing you keep up the monthly payments.
Then how would they stop the thing working if you
don't
keep up the monthly payments? Presumably they can do to a pub landlord whatever they'd do to a non-payer. Don't they lock cards out of the encryption scheme?
Yes, like any subscription system if you don't pay they just turn you off
The pint glass is added by the box - and can be dismissed by pressing 'back up'. I wasn't aware of the pub specific feed though - though I can believe that it exists.
The last time I played around with a box with a business subscription the pint glass was part of the picture on the pub version of the channels. I'll have to have a play at work one day
I've just given it another go, and was definitely able to make it go away on Sky Sports 1.