Don’t roll over, fight for what you believe

Kheng: fight your ground

Following the recent highly publicised partial success in the European Court of Justice by Hampshire licensee Karen Murphy and the Premier League on the issue of satellite screenings of football, should we all not be thinking now is the time to stand our ground, fight for what we believe, and not roll over?

Many licensees and companies up and down the country do challenge decisions made against them. My company, for one, will always fight for what it thinks is right and when an injustice has been done.

Many, though, do not.

If more people in our industry stood up and shouted and challenged not only people like Sky and the Premier League but the police and the like, maybe we would start to have consistency around the country and everyone would benefit.

Take the music licensing company PPL. You may be aware that PPL is trying to increase its fees by some 4,000%.

Two issues here: if PPL is not stopped, you could face huge increases in your PPL fee; secondly, PPL currently charges you in advance for the forthcoming 12 months for your licence.

This in itself poses problems. Problem one is the huge cash outlay in advance of any featured events.

The second problem concerns refunds, should you want to cancel your licence or if you do not hold all the featured events you originally had planned.

Do the PPL terms and conditions cover refunds? Not in our mind they don’t, but PPL will tell you that it does not offer refunds.

We have recently challenged PPL on this very subject and would suggest that anyone who encounters a problem of this kind, and not just with PPL, argues their corner.

Without a noise being made, change will not happen. If companies such as PPL pay a small amount out, as the remainder cannot be bothered to chase a refund, then it will continue this practice.

The same issue goes for licensing. Some police authorities apply unnecessary pressure on applicants, threatening to add conditions or review their licences.

My stance is simple: fight them.

I am seeing more and more of this type of practice and the fear of getting on the wrong side of the police seems to force some licensees into submission.

Do not get me wrong here. I am 100% for partnership working, but you need both parties to be coming from the same direction to work in partnership.

Onwards and forwards, fight the good fight.

Michael Kheng is director of Kurnia Group