What are the challenges of online transmission and rebroadcasting of radio and television programs faced by the Radio and Television Programs Directive?
Broadcasters are increasingly offering their broadcasts online (for example, through their simulating or through time-shifted services). However, this online programming is often not available in other Member States, even when there is interest abroad in accessing it. Acquiring rights for such uses can be particularly onerous, as the broadcaster must obtain authorizations from several right holders for different categories of works and other protected content, and separately for each Member State, when the program is to be broadcast.
Aggregate retransmission services of radio and television channels in packets. These services are increasingly provided through non-cable technologies (for example, internet protocol television), but the previous rules that facilitated the authorization of rights for the operators of these services were limited to cable retransmissions. Retransmission service operators that use other technologies (for example, satellite television, internet protocol television, digital terrestrial television, mobile network or the Internet) cannot benefit from these rules that facilitate the authorization of rights. The complexity of the clearance of rights makes it difficult for these services to offer programs from other Member States.
How does the new Radio and Television Programs Directive contribute to promoting cross-border access to radio and television programmers?
The new Radio and Television Programs Directive addresses the noted difficulties related to copyright clearance in two ways:
Establishing the “country of origin” principle: Rights required to make certain programs available on broadcasters’ online services (for example, simulcast or deferred services) need only be settled for the country of primary establishment of the broadcaster (rather than for all the Member States in which the broadcaster wishes to 해외스포츠중계 its programmers). The fee paid by broadcasters to rights holders will have to reflect the audience of the programmers. The country of origin principle will help broadcasters to put certain programs online also in other Member States (all radio and, in the case of television, news and current affairs programmers, as well as the own productions that the broadcasting organizations finance entirely). As a result, consumers will be more likely to watch and listen to online programs broadcast by broadcasters established in other EU countries. Citizens from linguistic minorities or Europeans residing in another Member State will have better chances of enjoying programs in their mother tongue
Expanding the mandatory collective rights management system
Which currently only applies to cable retransmissions, retransmission services provided through other means, such as internet television or satellite technologies, and online or digital terrestrial? This system allows retransmission operators to obtain the necessary rights more easily, since they must obtain them from the broadcasters whose channels they retransmit and from collective management entities, that is, organizations that represent a multitude of rights holders, and not dealing with multiple individual rights holders (for example, a music composer or audiovisual performer). At the same time, this system guarantees coverage of the rights of all interested rights holders. The new rules will allow broadcasters to offer their users more channels from across the European Union. For example, Belgian operators offering television packages to Belgian customers using internet protocol television technology will be able to more easily obtain rights to channels from other Member States and include them in their packages.
The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union approved the new Directive on radio and television programs in the spring of 2019. The deadline for incorporating these new regulations into the legal order of the Member States is June 7, 2021. Deadline for Member States to incorporate this legislation into their legal system was Monday, June 7, 2021.