by Lucy Britner
North London pub company Irish Pubs has had to pay £65,000 in damages to Sky for illegally showing football at 11 pubs.
Sky accepted a £65,000 settlement just days before a date was due to be set for a civil hearing for damages. The money was paid by Irish Pubs owner John McGowan and his company Enmore Developments.
The illegal use of Sky domestic viewing cards was uncovered by Sky investigators who had been travelling to pubs around the country to check Sky was being shown with the correct commercial agreement.
Investigators who visited the Irish Pubs outlets in question said that there was no Sky 'Bug' on the screen.
The Bug is one of two initiatives set up by Sky to detect illegal screenings and it only appears when licensees obtain the correct commercial licence.
The other initiative is a window sticker.
A spokesperson for Sky said: 'The settlement from Mr McGowan reflects how seriously this matter is taken.
'We are pleased with the result in this case, which demonstrates the success of the initiatives we have launched this year, including the on-screen Bug and the Sky Licence.
'The Bug in particular makes it very hard for a licensee who is showing [programmes] without the correct Sky commercial contract to escape detection. Our investigators visit licensed premises continually.'
This year more than 60 cases have been settled out of court on or after judgments, and enforcement proceedings are on-going in another 10 cases.
Sky reports around 150 cases are in progress and there are plans for around 20 new criminal actions and a number of civil actions each month.