EU: Oreja Seeks To Protect Public Access

On 5 February the European Commission proposed rules to ensure that major sporting events will not be shown exclusively to restricted audiences (pay-per-view). The proposed regulations – to be incorporated in a revised version of the TV Without Frontiers Directive – will allow Member States to guarantee free televised access to major sporting events. Pay-per-view TV broadcasting companies that bought exclusive rights to such events would be required to broadcast them either unscrambled or via a non-pay channel. The new proposals come in the context of growing bidding strength by pay-per-view TV broadcasters; last July the German group Kirch successfully bid for the rights to the World Cup soccer finals of 2002 and 2006. The Commission has opted for a “mutual recognition” system, rather than impose a mandatory list of free events. Each MS would be free to determine which sporting events it deems to be of general interest, and would draw up lists of such events, which would then have to be recognised by broadcasters across the EU. The system of “mutual recognition” would consist of the following elements:

• MS would be able to designate events of major importance, and could require the broadcasters under their jurisdiction and who had acquired exclusive rights to those events, to guarantee appropriate public access to any broadcasting of those events
• MS could safeguard the public’s interest by taking measures to ensure that other broadcasters had access to such events and which had been acquired on an exclusive basis by other broadcasters
• all such measures would only be implemented after consultation with all concerned, such as broadcasters and sporting bodies
• MS would inform the Commission of any such measures, and the Commission would inform other MS of the details

The UK Advertising Association has endorsed the proposals in a submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on EC legislation.