Football is getting better and better at The Prince (a bit like the Villa’s season) and Blues fans will be pleased to here we intend to recreate the atmosphere of the World Cup for their once in a lifetime trip to Wembley at the end of the month. Meanwhile we will be showing every Villa and Blues Premiership game, including the 3pm Saturday games (when the games clash, we show the away game). We will also show as many Baggies and Wolves matches as possible. We wish we could show more … cricket for example and the football that’s exclusive to Sky. Over the last few years Sky has had a monopoly on many televised sports, forcing pubs to pay massive amounts to bring customers key sporting events. The Prince, like many other pubs can’t afford Sky’s fees (over £1600 per month for the Prince) and we screen sports using another EU system ( a decoder card sold in another member state of the EU). This makes it affordable. Sky has been trying to stop this for years and has taken many pubs to court. Today, a test case that spent 4 years making its way to the European Court came out with a result that backs the pubs. According to the judge, Sky and the Premier League have been riding roughshod over the priciples of the common market by selling broadcast rights to specific territories within the EU. Pubs 1: Sky 0.
