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THE future of televised football in many York pubs could be in doubt after landlords were told they face massive hikes in their Sky TV subscription rates.
The increased charges are directly related to the huge rises in many business’s rateable values announced earlier this year, which left many publicans reeling.
Paula Allen, landlady of the Castle Howard Ox in The Groves, whose rateable value soared then by 200 per cent, said she was now facing a leap in her Sky monthly fee from £614 to £855 in September, with a further hefty rise looking likely the following year.
Steve Robinson, landlord of the Lighthorseman in Fulford Road, said his fee was set to increase from £715 a month to £1,025, and he was not prepared to pay such a big sum.
He claimed Sky was a multi-million- pound business which was “bleeding pubs dry” at a time when they were already struggling, and warned the pub would probably stop showing Sky sports matches on TV after the current fee expired at the end of August.
Alan King, landlord of the Dick Turpin in Moorcroft Road, Woodthorpe, said his payment was going up from about £600 to £900, and he would have to seriously consider removing Sky unless a better deal was offered. “I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” he said.
A Sky spokeswoman said pubs and clubs made a commercial decision to invest in live sport because it brought in customers and generated revenue. “With more and more people coming to their locals to watch sport, many thousands of commercial customers choose to subscribe to Sky because it’s good for their business,” she said.
She said Sky invested more than £1 billion a year to broadcast more than 40,000 hours of sport which next season will include 138 live Premier League matches and up to 15 matches every week during the UEFA Champions League. She said Sky had held its prices for the past two years, but in the light of increased investment on screen, prices were changing to reflect increased production and rights costs.
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