Beating Sport Broadcast Piracy - Saving The Shots Vs. Removing The Goal
In the sports industry, the significance of broadcasts as a source of funding cannot be overstated. For more popular sporting events, revenues from broadcast deals will generally overshadow the other revenue streams. For traditionally less popular sports, a broadcast deal can significantly increase the scope for higher sponsorship revenues to be negotiated with commercial partners due to increased exposure. Consequently, the increased revenue potential[1] associated with broadcast deals is often relied heavily upon for maintenance and growth at the top level, but also all the way down to the grassroots level (especially where the rightsholder is the national governing body of a sport).[2]
There is one factor at play, however, that threatens to undermine the value of this systemically important subsidy: piracy. This article explains the current commonplace legal solutions to combatting piracy, before considering whether it could be significantly diminished by focussing on another approach. Specifically, it looks at:
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- Tags: Broadcasting | Criminal Law | Europe | Football | Media Rights | OTT | Piracy | Premier League | Regulation
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Written by
Toby Hill
Toby Hill is a paralegal with a law degree from the University of Reading and a postgraduate certificate in sports law and practice from De Montfort University and the British Association for Sport and Law.
Global Summit 2024
Jeremy Evans
The missing elephant in the room in this article on broadcast piracy and its control mechanisms for the future protection of the content rights of broadcasters and sporting organisations is the omission of the WTO's June 2020 DS567 Case Study between beIN Sport (Qatar) v beoutQ sport (Saudi Arabia) case and the $1billion costs the Saudi's had to pay beIN Media, the parent company of beIN Sport as compensation for the illegal broadcasting of its content and ip rights to unrestricted territories. The WTO's ruling in this dispute is the real game changer for future protection of the content and ip rights of broadcasters and sporting organisations in the global market place today. Jeremy DG Evans: UCT:SA: 05/05/22
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