The case of Karen Murphy, the pub owner in Portsmouth whom a European judge ruled could use a Greek decoder to reduce the costs of showing live Premier League TV to her customers, was discussed by Wolfsburg managing director Thomas Rottgerman.

The Premier League tried to stop Murphy from showing the games using the decoder, which reduced the price of showing top flight English football from €6,000 euros to €800.

Rottgerman speculated that if the final European Court of Justice ruling on the case goes in favour of Murphy, then the impact of that decision could affect the Bundesliga and other top European leagues in the long term.

“If a Greek channel entered into the market with a creative approach, then others could join in which could be a good thing in the medium term, but revenues would drop for a while.

“Clubs depend on revenue from marketing of TV rights so (if the Murphy ruling is successful) then that would be a catastrophe and certainly not a good option.

“If we follow this law there could be less competition, not more.

“In any country there are competing agencies for these rights,” he added.

“One possible outcome is that in the Premier League, they only sell their rights to Sky and other smaller pay TV channels would not have anything and that would result in less competition.

“You have to look at the share of exclusivity, which should never be too high.

Rottgerman also speculated that a TV channel dedicated to the Bundesliga with no obligation to sign up to other channels could be an attractive proposition, and suggested that such a model could be copied across top European leagues if successful.

Rottgerman was joined by Sebastian Cording of CMS Hasche Sigle, who was less concerned about the impact of the Murphy case: “I don’t see Sky customers going away to a Greek pay TV channel if it’s in Greek and you will only save about 10 euros.”

Source: http://www.insideworldfootball.biz, by David Gold

Related Articles

1. European clubs sell dreams to Indian footballers Top European clubs are selling the Indians a football dream, promising them foreign trips and even playing for their teams. These clubs are going about...
2. Ranking of European TV broadcasting rights In the week that the sale of TV rights for international Premier League hit a new record reaching 1,556 million Euros, here is the status...
3. Polish Soccer Spends $1.3 Billion to Close Gap With Richer European Clubs After 72 hydraulic cranes lifted the retractable roof onto Warsaw’s new $400 million national stadium this week, Polish soccer clubs are hoping the flagship arena...
4. VfL Wolfsburg adidas 2011/12 Home Kit VfL Wolfsburg launched its adidas 2011/12 home kit (or “heimtrikot” in German)...
5. Pan-European media rights awarded to Eurosport Eurosport will provide extensive coverage and promotion of UEFA's Under-19, Under-17, women's and futsal competitions as part of a media rights deal running until 2013....