New York Irish bar owner ready to battle Premium Sports

Rooney’s bar faces fresh lawsuit for theft of signal

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Eugene Rooney, owner of Rooney's bar, is in an ongoing battle with Premium Sports

Photo by New York Times

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In the wake of winning a legal battle against Premium Sports, New York bar owner Eugene Rooney faces a fresh lawsuit refiled by Premium for theft of signal. Premium pulled its service from Rooney’s bars, and he in turn countersued for breach of contract.

Premium, formally part of Setanta Sports, is the company that brings Irish GAA, rugby and soccer matches to America through closed-circuit feeds, mostly to bars. Premium says it also has the right to charge patrons for games in its packages that are broadcast free overseas.

Rooney first found himself in conflict with Premium after showing a rugby game between Ireland and England in February 2010, shown in one of his bars in Manhattan through a slingbox medium. After a battle back and forth with Premium they pulled their sports service from Rooney’s bars, and he in turn sued them for breach of contract.

Rooney sat down with IrishCentral Community News recently at his bar, The Irish Pub on 7th Avenue. The 64-year-old Irish immigrant explained what happened that February.

"It was a big game. Premium phoned me up and said to charge twenty dollars a person in order to view the game. 'You could take in five thousand dollars,' they told me. This money goes straight to Premium,” said Rooney.

He told them no. According to Rooney, the following day they called him again and offered to give him half of the money.

“I still refused. I could have made three or four thousand dollars that day. Most bar owners pay ten thousand dollars a year for a contract to receive the games from Premium, I had the chance to make almost half of that total in just one day but it didn't interest me."

Rooney did show the game in his bar that day however, and this would in turn really annoy Premium. It  caused a two year law suit. Rooney used a Slingbox device to stream the game from a friend’s apartment in Dublin.

"I have a lot of superb friends both here and in Ireland who know a lot about technology. I used the slingbox device two years ago which only set me back two thousand Euro, as opposed to paying Premium the ten thousand dollars most other bar owners around New York pay,” he explained.

There was a slight delay between the live game in Ireland and the game on the televisions in the bar, but the bar owner said the picture was super.

“It may have only frozen once the entire game. With the slingbox device, if I changed one channel on the television in the bar, all the TV's would change,” he said.

But now he has a new device.

“This new box could be kept in a shed in Ireland, even a field and I would still receive the games in High Definition. See, technology is moving so fast these days that it has not been kept within the law - upgrade laws to protect providers. As long as this technology is unprotected, don't blame me, because if it is there I'm going to take it,” said Rooney.

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