Bar licensees fined over illegal Sky Sports transmission

The licensees of a bar in Wembley, London have been found guilty of airing Sky Sports to customers without a valid licence.

On Tuesday, March 27, the three licensees of the Diu Bar were found guilty in their absence of a collective eleven offences of dishonest reception of a television transmission.

The defendants were ordered to pay total fines and costs of £10,190 ($14,307).

The prosecution was brought by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), a body representing IP owners in the UK.

Sky Sports is available to licensed premises in the UK through a commercial viewing agreement.

Stephen Gerrard, prosecuting manager at FACT, said that cases such as these should send a clear warning to pub owners and licensees that show Sky broadcasts without a commercial subscription.

George Lawson, head of commercial piracy at Sky, added: “It’s important to us that businesses are aware of the consequences of showing Sky Sports illegally—it is a serious issue that is damaging to the pub industry, and those licensees who choose to televise content in this way should be aware that they are at high risk of being caught and face substantial penalties.”

In January, TBO reported that the licensee of a pub premises in England had been fined £24,331 in a criminal prosecution for airing Sky Sports without a valid licence.

Sky also hit a boxing fan with an £85,000 demand after his iPad was used to stream the pay-per-view fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko on Facebook.