Broadcasting Rights and Media

Question 1

What was the media situation with football in UK in 90s and what has it led to?

Answer 1

. Sky held a monopoly of PL rights.
. Exponentially grown fiancial commodification of sport to the benefit of most stakeholders but the cost is borne by consumers

Question 2

What is a summary of the legal definition of broadcast?

Answer 2

Electronic transmission of visual images, sounds or other information which

Question 3

What is collective selling of broadcasting rights?

Answer 3

Where all teams in a competition join together and sell their rights through one communal body.

Question 4

What is individual selling of broadcast rights?

Answer 4

Each team participant sells their own individual rights for broadcast deals e.g. Spain

Question 5

What were the challenges to the collective selling of TV rights?

Answer 5

FAPL Investigations
. 1999 OFT Investigation
. 2006 European Commission Approval and FAPL
Commitments
UEFA Investigations
. 2003 European Commission Approval and UEFA
Commitments

Question 6

Why was collective selling challenged by regulators?

Answer 6

Because there was the exclusivity of broadcast rights to one rights holder with the belief it was distorting competitor and harming consumers

Question 7

Explain the challenges to collective selling

Answer 7

OFT- too difficult for rivals to gain rights, forced high and too few games made available to fans
outcome-challenged upheld- Court found benefits to current system- games fans wanted to see, financial benefits to clubs, fixture control by FPL

UEFA and Euro commision- made commitments allowing excemption from Art 101 TFEU e.g. mixture of subscription and free games

FPL commitments and Euro commision-similar to UEFA-now no single broadcaster to games, evenly balanced content of games shown, more games, unused revert to clubs for exploitation

Question 8

What is an issue with the new competition rules of broadcast rights?

Answer 8

. Potentially harms the consumer with many more subscriptions needed to watch all games

Question 9

What is the issue of piracy for broadcasters?

Answer 9

. Problem withs illegal streaming sites and an issue for right holders

.First Row Sports, which was recently the subject of injunction proceedings due to making a profit

. Hard to identify illegal streamers
.Individuals court may not be able to pay losses to broadcasters
. Jurisdictional-expensive and time consuming to get an injunction against streamers in other countries especially

Question 10

What are protected or ring-fenced events?

Answer 10

. Audio Visual Media Services Directive (previously Television Without Frontiers Directive)

. Gives MS power to protect the dissemination of what they regard as events of major importance for their societies

. The MS needs to draw up a list with designated events, national or non national. MS have to notify of this list of events

Question 11

Explain the logistics of protected events

Answer 11

. Regulated by Part IV Broadcasting Act 1996

. Divides broadcasters into two categories: pay-TV and free-to-air

. The list of protected events is drawn up by the Secretary of State

. Qualifying broadcasters are those whose channels are available without payment to at least 95% of the population

. Listed events are categorised as Group A (full live coverage protected) or Group B events (secondary coverage protected)

. The rights to broadcast live listed events of Group A events or highlights in the case of Group B must be offered to qualifying broadcasters (e.g. BBC, ITV)

Question 12

Give example of category A and B listed events

Answer 12

.Group A (Full Live Coverage Protected) 
The Olympic Games 
The FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament 
The European Football Championship Finals Tournament 
The FA Cup Final 

. Group B (Secondary Coverage Protected)
Cricket Test Matches played in England
Non-Finals play in the Wimbledon Tournament
All Other Matches in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament
Six Nations Rugby Tournament Matches Involving Home Countries

Question 13

What issues have arisen with Live Sport shown at pubs?

Answer 13

Increasing license costs of showing sport in pubs (around £9k) have led to some pubs purchasing decoders and satellite feeds from other countries
e.g. Karen Murphy case 2007

Question 14

Explain the background to the Murphy vs Media Protection Services LTD

Answer 14

Karen Murphy, a landlady, bought a Greek decoder (£400) to show Premier League Games in her pub in Portsmouth.

Question 15

What was the EU Law analysis regarding the Purchase of Decoders from Another Member States? in Murphy Case

Answer 15

. The legislation that prohibited sale of the decoders in another member state was contrary to Art.56

. A clause of an exclusive licence agreement (between FAPL and the Broadcaster) was a restriction on competition and therefore prohibited by Art.101

Can it be justified? These restrictions could not be objectively justified

Therefore infringement of EU Law

Question 16

What was the EU Law analysis regarding the Screening of games via foreign decoder in the UK pubs?

Answer 16

The EU Copyright Directive - Applies and regulates copyright protections in the Member States
Article 3(1) of Directive –
- Use of copyrighted work-not the match but anthem, punditry, logo
-
Authorisation of the right holder (FAPL) needed otherwise an infringement of copyrights. Therefore, Karen Murphy infringed the copyrights of the rights holder.

Question 17

What further analysis was there by the UK High Court regarding Murphy case?

Answer 17

Article 72(3) of CDPA 1988 – Defence for showing broadcasting content to the non-paying public

However only applicable to certain types of copyrighted materials namely broadcasts, certain sounds recordings and films but not underlying literary, musical, dramatic works. I.e. FAPL logo and other graphics , anthems in the live games are copyright protected.

Therefore, Karen Murphy infringed the copyrights of FAPL