GLOBAL BUSINESS

ENVIRONMENT
CASE ANALYSIS

Group 1

Aashish J Shah
Aishwarya Krishnan
Aju K Mathew
Akshay P S
Amrutha Jawahar
Aneesh Varghese
Anita Mathew
Anooplal P M
Archana Vijayakumar
Arshad C A

Introduction
European Union (EU) has been trying to implement a treaty calling for the establishment of a
single market for goods and services across the union but the progress toward this goal is still
not complete. The English Premier League has for years segmented Europe into different
national markets, charging different prices for broadcasting rights depending on local
demand. The rights are most expensive in the United Kingdom, where the league has
contracted with British Sky Broadcasting Group and ESPN to screen games.
The case mentions how Karen Murphy a pub owner who didnt want to pay the 7000 pound
annual subscription fee that Sky demanded had instead purchased a TV signal decoder card
and used it to unscramble the feed from a Greek TV broadcaster, Nova.Even though Murphy
was fined 8000 pounds in the initial judgment in a British court in response to lawsuit from
the Premier League ,later EUs highest court judged in favour of Murphy by stating that
European law does not make it possible to prohibit the live transmission of Premier League
matches in pubs by means of foreign decoder cards.This kind of rulings will always
encourage others also to follow Murphys path and this certainly is a threat of reduction in
income for Premier League broadcasters as well as clubs.
1. Why do you think the English Premier League has historically charged different prices
for broadcasting rights in different European markets?
English Premier League charges different prices for broadcasting rights in different European
markets. This is mainly because the demand for league is different in European Union. The
demand is very high in England and low in Greece; they charge according to the demand.
Price discrimination can also be explained with the economic conditions of the nations in
European Union. Premier league charged the nations on the basis of economic performance.
UK is number one in economic performance so they charged more for UK. Also, earlier they
didnt have a common currency so there were changes in the broadcasting rates according to
the currency also.

2. Do you think the European Court of Justice was right to rule that the league could not
stop people from buying Premier League feeds from other countries?
Yes, the European Court of Justice was right to rule that the league could not stop
people from buying Premier League feeds from other countries. Because that national
legislation which prohibits the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards is contrary to the
freedom to provide services and cannot be justified either in light of the objective of
protecting intellectual property rights or by the objective of encouraging the public to attend
football stadiums.So far as concerns the possibility of justifying that restriction in light of the
objective of protecting intellectual property rights, the FAPL cannot claim copyright in the
Premier League matches themselves, as those sporting events cannot be considered to be an
authors own intellectual creation and, therefore, to be works for the purposes of copyright
in the European Union. Only the opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem,
prerecorded films showing highlights of recent Premier League matches and various graphics
can be regarded as works.By contrast, the matches themselves are not works enjoying such
protection.Also a prohibition on using foreign decoder cards would go beyond what is
necessary to ensure appropriate remuneration for the holders of the rights concerned.
This is purely as case of regional economic integration where agreements
are made among countries in a geographic rgion to reduce and ultimately remove tariff and
no-tariff barriers to the free flow of goods,services and factors of production between each
other. This case points out what are the possible issues that can arise as a result of creation of
a trading bloc. As a result of the law the league cannot stop consumers in one country from
subscribing to TV feeds from another country where the price is low. This is really beneficial
to consumers because apart from cost factor, the rule opened the choice of buying products to
customers.
3. Who benefits from the EU ruling? Who will the losers be?

The beneficiaries were the consumers . Instead of using Sky, on which it costs 700 a month to
see Premier League matches, Ms Murphy used the Greek TV station Nova, which has the rights

to screen the games in Greece, and which cost her 800 a year. A difference of 7600
(700*12=8400-800=7600) is very huge. Therefore there is a drastic reduce in customers expense.
Apart from the cost factor ,this gives rights to customers in choice of products they want to buy.
The losers are the producers because it presents challenges to them who have to
adapt to a more competitive environment. In the case, as a result of EU ruling the value of
Premier League has reduced, driving down the income to Premier League clubs and hence the
players they can afford to recruit and the salaries they can afford to pay.
Thus, as with free trade in general, regional economic integration creates gain for customers, but
it can be challenging for some producers.

4. If you were running the English Premier League, what would your strategy be on
broadcast rights going forward?
Revenue from broadcasters is of great benefit to the English Premiere League.
If I was running the English Premier League, my strategy on broadcast rights going forward
would mainly focus on allotting broadcast rights to the maximum number of broadcasters thus
increasing the revenue incurred as a result.
I would make sure that the amount charged for subscribing to the programmes is affordable by
the subscribers. I would try and work on removing restrictions imposed on showing the
programmes live. This would definitely satisfy the audience to a great extent as the possibility
that the audience misses out on something is very little. This will have a positive impact on the
brand name of English Premiere League, thus helping them acquire a more loyal pool of
audience. I would design the channels that show the programmes related to the English Premiere
League in such a way that it fits the cultural differences of people of different regions and
countries.