[newaccountfool]

Interesting, a lot of pubs who can afford it simply get a satellite dish and a subscription to a foreign channel. Saves them thousands a month and they get all of the important matches. Although some commentary is in a foreign language.

[tragomaskhalos]

Indeed; in my regular pre-match pub a working knowledge of cyrillic has come in handy to decode the names of English teams from the televised Bulgarian :)

[tonyblundell]

My local did this, until he was caught, prosecuted and subsequently lost his job/business and something like £30-40k IIRC.

[newaccountfool]

I know many who do this and Sky activly try to pressure the publicans to purchase sky but can't do anything about it.

[tonyblundell]

Yeah this was in 07/08-ish - I think someone successfully challenged them in court since.

[jlebrech]

it's legal to show a foreign language too.

[newaccountfool]

Yup, a publican went to court with Sky in the UK about this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17150054

[colinbartlett]

Wow "publican" is a real word, cool! As an American, I have never heard this and thought you were making it up.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/publican

[CatsoCatsoCatso]

It's a great word but it's not one I've heard often in person, usually people just say landlord.

(I live in Southern England, and this comment is only from my experience.)

[snowy]

Ireland here we use publican.

[phillc73]

Publican is common in Australia.

[_asummers]

Semi-OT, there's an excellent bar/restaurant in Chicago named Publican. If you're ever in Chicago, you should check it out.

[ptaipale]

For me it sounds like a real word, but refers to a tax collector (with similar connotations as "collaborator", though not quite "quisling".)

[ptaipale]

Surprised that people dislike this comment. This is a meaning for "publican" much older than pubs, and the also the meaning of "publican" as described in Wikipedia [0] and as many of us have learned at school about Gospel of Luke (where this role of a despised tax collector or collaborator with the occupying Roman empire was at heart of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican).

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publican [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisee_and_the_Publican

[driverdan]

> it costs £700 a month to see Premier League matches

Wow, that's ridiculous. I can see why people are trying to find ways to get it cheaper.

[mootothemax]

Wow, that's ridiculous. I can see why people are trying to find ways to get it cheaper.

It goes both ways; pubs are often packed to the rafters for games, with the beer flowing heavily throughout.

[mikeash]

Seems absurdly cheap to me for something that draws in customers effectively. You'll probably make back the money in a few hours, and the rest of the month will be profit.

[newaccountfool]

Not all pubs cant accept hundreds of people within there premises. And large crowds are only attracted for big games which are few and far between.

[newaccountfool]

The Sky package for pubs is a lot more than £700. £1200 to £1500 per month more like.

[jamesbrownuhh]

It depends on the size of the pub and, therefore, how much extra beer money is likely to be brought in by the venue showing live football (etc)

[tonyblundell]

That's for a commercial license.

Home subscriptions are about £25.

[pbhjpbhj]

>To use any of these extra parts [chrome, trails, reviews, etc.] associated for a broadcast, a pub would need the permission of the Premier League. //

That's an interesting statement. Presumably though the Premier League licenses their feeds to multiple companies in different countries - shouldn't that exhaust their rights then; meaning a pub could sub-license from a foreign country within the EEA. Otherwise they're perverting free trade within the EEA.

[ccozan]

There are actually talks within European Commision to make such country-based licensing illegal, i.e. it must be EU wide licensing, citing, as noted above, the free trade within the EEA.