Ever gone down to the pub to watch the match and wondered what the pint glass symbol means in the corner of the TV or projector screen?
No it’s not your cue to get another round in, nor does it mean it’s time to drink up, as one woman recently discovered. Ali Silk took to TikTok whilst watching live football with her pals after learning its true meaning.
“Who knew this?” she penned in a caption alongside her clip. “I just found out that apparently that thing on the screen isn’t for when you need to change the batteries in the remote.”
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After conferring with her group of friends, Ali explained its true meaning: “It’s to show the pub has a licence to show football. So I was wrong!”
Responding to the video, one TikTok user pointed out: “It tells Sky investigators, who do spot checks, that the pub has a valid pub contract and not a residential contract. Sky charge pubs way more than residential, like 1000s per month.” A second person added further detail: “It also changes randomly from game to game (half full etc) so an inspector could spot a fake watermark.”
A third added: “Every now and then part of the subscription/viewing card number gets displayed as well to catch out those sharing.” Whilst a fourth said from experience in the trade: “I used to sell it to pubs all over the country. I ran a sales team for Sky Business – some pubs [pay] £5k a month.”
Another person recalled an incident that saw their local boozer fall foul of the law, meanwhile, penning: “There was a place up here years ago that got caught illegally showing football… they had painted the pint on the screen with Tipp-ex to trick undercover investigators!”
Whilst a pub employee who was fooled by the pint glass meaning confessed in response: “On my first day a customer told me it was when the landlord was doing happy hour two for one on pints… and I believed them.”
Sky explains on the Fighting Fraud section of its website: “We take illegal use of our programming very seriously because it’s important to ensure our legitimate Sky subscribers are not left short changed. The only legal way to show Sky Sports programming in Licensed premises in mainland UK is through a valid commercial viewing agreement from Sky Business.
“Legitimate Sky Business commercial subscribers will see a pint glass icon appear on their TV screen from time-to-time. The lack of this can reveal who is ‐ and most importantly, who is not ‐ showing Sky legally.”