Pub landlords face Sky penalty

net1

Sports fans may have noticed a discreet pint-glass logo flash up in the corner of TV screens at their local pub during football matches and other sporting events last weekend.

The "pint-glass bug" had been piped into pub broadcasts as part of a campaign to weed out attempts to dodge Sky's new subscription charges, which have more than trebled in some pubs.

Inspectors from the Federation Against Copyright Theft, are collaborating with the satellite broadcaster and have begun a covert tour of pubs.

Legitimate pub subscribers have also been invited to blow the whistle on competitors suspected of fiddling Sky's regime. If the pint-glass symbol is absent from screens at designated times, a licensee can be reported by anyone watching and exposed as a subscription dodger.

In the last 14 months, there have been 500 criminal prosecutions and 300 civil cases relating to licensees caught attempting to show Sky broadcasts on the cheap.

Sky, which has about 35,000 pub and club subscribers, said those caught fiddling its system face fines of up to £5,000 and a criminal record.

Over the summer, Sky announced that the cost of its Premiership pay-per-view ser vice would rise this season from an average of just under £400 to about £1,500.

Despite 30% of pub customers refusing to sign up to the service, Ian Holden, who leads Sky's business broadcasting division, defended the move in an interview in yesterday's Morning Advertiser trade magazine.

"More pubs are taking Prem Plus than I thought would do," he said. "An extra 2 million people went to the pub to watch a game on the first Prem Plus Saturday this season."

He refused to rule out further price rises next year, insisting that subscription levels should reflect the amount paid for media rights.