£6k penalty for screening foreign satellite football

A Lancashire host has been told to pay £6,000 for screening a Premiership match via a foreign satellite feed.

Linda Fox, of the Golden Cup, Darwen, was found guilty at Blackburn Magistrates' Court of dishonestly receiving and broadcasting the Blackburn Rovers versus Bolton Wanderers match on 12 December 2010.

The court heard that Fox had used Albania-based channel Tring to broadcast the match.

Giving evidence, Fox said she realised it was against the law and had stopped using the foreign decoder cards after receiving a warning visit from Media Protection Services (MPS). She had, however, decided to show the match that resulted in her conviction because of pressure from her customers.

Fox was ordered to pay a fine of £1,000 and costs of £5,000.

A spokesperson for MPS, which undertakes prosecutions for television copyright breaches on behalf of the Premier League, said: "We are disappointed that a minority of publicans still ignore the many warnings given by the courts and ourselves.

"But our prosecutions will continue for the majority who respect the law and have suffered loss of trade by the activities of rogue neighbours."

Speaking to the Publican's Morning Advertiser, Fox said: "It was just a stupid decision on my part, but I did not think it was illegal (to broadcast games from a foreign satellite feed) on a Sunday."

Prosecutions for using Albanian satellite feeds are unaffected by the on-going Karen Murphy case at the European Court of Justice because Albania is outside the EU. A ruling is due on that case on 4 October.