Conditions for broadcasting football matches
Date: 04/10/2011In its judgement of October 4th 2011concerning the Football Association Premier League, the European Court of Justice concluded that the system of exclusive licenses which prohibits the provision of foreign decoder cards (decoding satellite broadcasting to viewers who want to watch matches outside the territory of the member country who obtained a license) is in contradiction with the principle of free provision of services and the competition law of the European Union. The Court of Justice also stated that a sport match itself cannot be deemed as work protected by EU copyright laws, but videos, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded movies depicting crucial moments of previous matches or various graphics are considered as such. These are therefore protected by EU copyright laws and it is necessary to obtain authorisation from the authors of such works for broadcasting the work in pubs, since these works are broadcasted there to customers - new audience, which has not been considered by the authors when granting a permit to broadcast their works. For more information please contact Stanislav Ďurica (stanislav.durica@rc-cms.sk), senior associate at Ružička Csekes.