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Vive La Resistance!

be careful what you wish for, you might just get it at a higher price to boot.

To be honest I don't care that much as I refuse to pay for commercial TV anyway.
Freeview is teh way forward.

Same – less football on TV the better

Back in my day football was free on BBC and ITV.
Bring back the old days.

Agreed. I do not watch football, but realise that many do. It should be available on terrestrial even a couple of days delay but it should be available freely on terrestrial. I would rather it be on than reality TV.

This will be an interesting case to watch - I happen to agree with her arguments about it being an Internal Market issue - particularly a restriction on trade within the internal market.

Interesting.

I'm not so sure that this will count as a restriction on trade. Does each match's rights have to be subject to competition or football as a whole? Sky haven't restricted anybody's ability to watch football per se, merely certain fixtures; the plaintiff can still watch other football matches.

Obviously I'd love football to be cheaper to watch but I'm not sure this will do it.

The way I see it is this:

Goods and services, according to EU law, should be freely traded across European borders. European citizens are allowed, by law, to buy both goods and services cross-border.
The Premiership sell their TV rights to broadcasters in each EU country.
EU citizens should therefore be able to subscribe to a Greek/French/German satellite provider to get cheaper rates for the premiership. It's all about competition within the internal market, as it stands they have an expensive monopoly.

Hmmm - convincing argument and my original thought.

I just wouldn't be confident it would go that way.

Try buying eastern european tobacco, or any so called "grey" imports. There are all ready plenty of exemptions to the "free trade".

Yes there are exceptions, but they are few and far between - there are four areas where an exemption can be sought (as laid out in the Cassis di Dijon case):



but the main two areas where exemptions are granted are public health and public morality. These exemptions are applied for by Member State governments and agreed by the Commission. In general restrictions on trade are not allowed, and what is marketable in one member state can be freely sold in the others.

What's the worst possible out come?
Europe wide TV cost will drop -> TV companies will pay less for those rights -> Big clubs get less cash -> Players have to drop to a five figure sum per week rather than six.

Oh my heart bleeds.

Worst possible outcome.. Sky buys the rights to european broadcasting rights.. costs to consumers go up.

Odds are that the players will still get the same salary but the clubs go bust.