Mooley
TK Veteran
An TV viewer in Italy has won the right to use his own receiver to pick up channels from Sky's Italian cousin.
A magistrate in Naples has ruled that Sky Italia cannot impose the use of its own digital TV decoder on subscribers.
The situation has many parallels with the UK, where Sky customers can only use one of the Sky Digiboxes or Sky+ PVRs.
The wronged viewer claimed he was forced to use Sky Italia's decoder - provided free after the company changed its conditional access in 2005 - even though he owns a better decoder which can receive more channels and offers more functions.
Consumers' association solictior Angelo Pisani, on the viewer's behalf, added that the Sky Italia receiver is not capable of receiving all free-to-air channels and has a reduced memory capacity.
The case also alleged that Sky Italia's actions were a threat to competition because it had a monopoly on the decoder market.
The magistrate condemned Sky Italia for "breach of contract and contractual and personal damage". A report on Advanced-Television.com adds that Sky Italia has been told to observe existing legislation and
supply TV in an accessible format to the viewer, with damages of around £390.
M. Pisani added that the judgement is only valid for this case, and doesn't apply to all of Sky Italia's clients.
Courtesy of whatsat.com
A magistrate in Naples has ruled that Sky Italia cannot impose the use of its own digital TV decoder on subscribers.
The situation has many parallels with the UK, where Sky customers can only use one of the Sky Digiboxes or Sky+ PVRs.
The wronged viewer claimed he was forced to use Sky Italia's decoder - provided free after the company changed its conditional access in 2005 - even though he owns a better decoder which can receive more channels and offers more functions.
Consumers' association solictior Angelo Pisani, on the viewer's behalf, added that the Sky Italia receiver is not capable of receiving all free-to-air channels and has a reduced memory capacity.
The case also alleged that Sky Italia's actions were a threat to competition because it had a monopoly on the decoder market.
The magistrate condemned Sky Italia for "breach of contract and contractual and personal damage". A report on Advanced-Television.com adds that Sky Italia has been told to observe existing legislation and
supply TV in an accessible format to the viewer, with damages of around £390.
M. Pisani added that the judgement is only valid for this case, and doesn't apply to all of Sky Italia's clients.
Courtesy of whatsat.com
