Al Jazeera on Television Is Causing Trouble for British Pubs, but It’s Not Political

The New York Times

By DOREEN CARVAJAL
Published: August 21, 2006
Al Jazeera’s English news channel is bogged down in delays, but the Qatar broadcaster has a lower-profile sister network that is already enjoying success with an English-speaking audience.

Al Jazeera Sports Plus, a fast-growing satellite sports channel, has become popular with viewers who want Formula One races and British soccer matches. The commentary is strictly Arabic, but the cut-rate service, along with other foreign satellite channels, is gaining a broad following in British pubs, where customers are getting accustomed to toasting their favorite soccer teams while watching the occasional ad for a Greek supermarket or a Czech car dealer.

“We’ve had whole games where we don’t have any English commentary,� said Derek Hopper, owner of the Royal Exchange, a pub in Portsmouth, England. “We just turn the volume down. We tried doing the radio,� where the commentary is in English with a time delay, “but we found it was a little distorted. I tell customers, ‘Just watch with your eyes like you do at a real game.’ �

Britain’s powerful FA Premier League, however, is not cheering. The league has been pressing copyright violation lawsuits against dozens of English pub owners, with mixed results.

The Premier League says the only legal way to watch its soccer matches in a local commercial setting is through the British Sky Broadcasting Group, which is far more expensive than the foreign options.

“It’s illegal and it’s copyright theft,� said Dan Johnson, a league spokesman. “We sell to Sky, and they have the sole rights to show league matches.�

Mr. Hopper is one of five bar owners from Portsmouth, nicknamed the Pompey Five, who were prosecuted for showing matches through Greek and Arabic satellite channels.

The group has pooled a £15,000 ($28,250) legal fund as a way of challenging the monopoly BSkyB, which is controlled by the News Corporation, and steadily rising commercial fees for pubs that can cost upwards of £9,000 ($16,950) annually.

Their legal argument is that European free trade laws enable them to watch British games through foreign satellite services from European Union countries like Greece. Much murkier, though, is the case for the use of non-European satellite services like Al Jazeera and ART, the Arabic Radio and TV network, which hold rights for territories outside the European Union.

Since its start a year ago, the pay channel Al Jazeera Sports Plus has grown to 850,000 subscribers across 23 countries in its region in the Middle East and North Africa, said Hedi Smirani, director of marketing for Al Jazeera Sports.

It priced its subscriptions low — about 25 euros ($32) a year — to develop a big audience.

But satellite technology has given maneuvering room to passionate sports fans in many countries. Satellites are not able to beam their signals to specific countries. A satellite signal usually spans a number of countries.

“We know that we are very popular because of the e-mails and calls that we get, particularly on the chat shows with callers from Europe,� said Mr. Smirani.

The British soccer league sells images of its games to 200 broadcasters in other countries, including Al Jazeera, ART and Nova, the Greek satellite provider, which shows games on its SuperSport channel.

BSkyB clearly holds rights to the live Premiership games in England, although it is leaving the protection of its rights to the league.

With the approach of the new soccer season, the British league is planning more prosecutions of pub owners by dispatching investigators to track whether the bar clientele has suddenly developed a zest for Arabic or Greek fare.

To watch foreign programming, all a viewer needs is a satellite dish, a set-top box and a smart card that allows the box to decode the right signals. Greek satellite providers issue smart cards only to Greek addresses, and Mr. Smirani insists that Al Jazeera Sports sells its cards only in its territory.

But once issued, the cards can end up anywhere.

“We have a lot of pubs buying them,� said Joe Ibrahim, managing director of Digital Sales, a satellite supplier that offers pubs a yearly package for the Greek Nova system and for the Czech UPC channel.

Mr. Ibrahim says the business is insured against legal costs. “We look at it this way: any insurance company wouldn’t underwrite this unless they think that it’s legal.�

So far, all of the Pompey Five have avoided fines for copyright violation charges.

In two cases, the judge ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove an element of dishonesty — in other words, the pub owners had not realized that they were doing something illegal. Charges were dropped against the other three, including Mr. Hopper, when the soccer league’s lawyer demanded more time to gather evidence and the judge refused.

The soccer league dismisses the outcome as a narrow victory for the pub owners. Mr. Johnson, the league’s spokesman, argues that bar owners are now more aware of the legal debate surrounding use of foreign satellite services.

So that leaves bar owners like Mr. Hopper mulling whether to flip on his Arabic channel, since he is now as well versed in broadcast rights as he is in the qualities of Guinness.

“I’m between the devil and the deep blue sea,� Mr. Hopper said. “If I show it and get caught, I’m going to get hung. And if I don’t show it, I could lose my customers. And if I show Sky, it will eat up all my profits.

“We don’t mind paying a fair price, but Sky is holding us for ransom.�