European broadcasters are to be restricted to showing one live match only on Saturday afternoons as the Premier League fights back in its effort to prevent pubs in England showing the games using foreign decoders.
TV stations on the continent will also not be permitted to have commentary in English — another change from the current deal which allowed all the Saturday 3pm games to be shown on the continent and with no restrictions on commentary.
It follows last year’s High Court victory for Portsmouth pub landlady Karen Murphy, who overturned her conviction for using a cut-price Greek satellite decoder to air Premier League matches.
Clubs such as Sunderland have claimed attendances suffer badly from pubs in the city showing home matches live via foreign satellite decoders. The new rules for European broadcasters mean pubs will not be able to show any match they choose even if they have a decoder.
The Premier League has almost finalised its overseas rights deals for 2013-16 – only Europe, the Middle East and North Africa remain outstanding. Once those are in place, the total broadcasting income for the next three seasons in expected to top £5billion.
