FR - France: Commercialisation of Broadcasting Rights for Sports Events

- Commercialisation of Broadcasting Rights for Sports Events and Respect for the Right to Information

- Commercialisation of broadcasting rights for sports events on radio submitted to the courts as an urgent matter

FR - France: Commercialisation of Broadcasting Rights for Sports Events and Respect for the Right to Information

Mathilde de Rocquigny - Légipresse

There is fierce debate at present on the rights for broadcasting football matches on radio. While the French Minister for Sport, Marie-George Buffet, has said that she is opposed to any form of commercialisation or monopoly, on 22 February the French national football league (LNF) invited applications from radio stations wishing to buy the broadcasting rights for the competitions it organises (national championships in divisions 1 and 2, league cup). The radio station RMC Info has acquired exclusive coverage of the World Cup by an agreement reached with the Kirch Group.

For many of those involved in the radio sector, the commercialisation of broadcasting rights raises a serious problem of respect for freedom of information and infringes the free choice of the listener. The Minister for Sport thus recalled the legislation applicable in this area. The Act of 16 July 1984 (amended) on the obligation and the promotion of physical and sports activities stipulates more particularly that "making over the right to use a (...) sports competition to an audiovisual communication service may not prevent other audiovisual communication services from providing the public with information". Although the Minister was not able to prevent the LNF from issuing its invitation for applications, she did limit its effect, by calling on the radio stations to make no response. In the circumstances, the only radio to station to have indicated its interest (RMC Info) appears to have changed its mind.

On 25 February, Marie-George Buffet met a group of radio stations, called Sport-Libre, to discuss these problems. They said they were working together on drawing up one or more statutory articles with a view to defining and guaranteeing the right to information, and announced the setting up of a monitoring committee whose members would be representatives of the radio stations.

This has affected the coverage of another sport, as the non-specialist radio stations boycotted the first Formula 1 Grand Prix of the year, held in Australia. The aim of the boycott, agreed to by all the members of the Sport-Libre economic interest grouping, was to protest against RMC Info being granted exclusive radio broadcasting rights for Formula 1 racing this season, and more generally against the selling of radio broadcasting rights for various football matches. Cycling appears to have been spared. On 26 February, the organisers of the Tour de France cycle race excluded the possibility of an exclusivity agreement with a radio station for broadcasting the race. The chairman of the parent company of the Tour de France said that this was "the greatest free show in the world".

The question of selling coverage rights was also raised for the written press, on the initiative of the chairman of the LNF, and has aroused serious concern among those involved in the sector, particularly within the French national press federation. However, the LNF very quickly made it known that it was abandoning the idea, reasoning that the press only commented on matches after the event.

It should be noted, lastly, that broadcasting rights for television coverage of sport events may be sold. However, when the "Television without Frontiers" Directive " was transposed into national law, Article 20-2 of the amended Act of 30 September 1986, included under the Act of 1 August 2000, provided that a decree would give the list of events of major importance for which channels could not acquire exclusive rights (see IRIS 2001-3: 11); this text has not been adopted yet. Perhaps the present debate will give the regulatory authorities an opportunity to deal with the matter.

FR-France: Commercialisation of broadcasting rights for sports events on radio submitted to the courts as an urgent matter

Amélie Blocman - Légipresse

The commercialisation of broadcasting rights for sports events on radio remains a matter for debate. On 14 March the "Sport Libre" EIG, whose membership includes most French radio stations, and Radio France applied to the Conseil d'État as an urgent matter to have the French national football league prevented from granting exclusivity to any one radio station for the events and competitions it organises, and from making over any rights in this respect, and to maintain the possibility of freely reporting on such events and competitions live on radio. The applicants felt that the matter was urgent since the league had asked the radio stations to reply to its call for applications for the sale of radio exploitation rights in respect of matches in the French championship no later than 22 March. According to Article 18-1 of the Act of 16 July 1984 on the organisation and promotion of physical and sporting activities, "the federations [...] are the sole owners of the right to exploit the sporting events or competitions they organise". Article 18-2 adds that "the transfer of the right to exploit a sporting event or competition to an audiovisual communication service may not prevent the public receiving information from other audiovisual communication services. The vendor or purchaser of such a right cannot oppose the broadcasting by other audiovisual communication services of short extracts taken free of charge from among the images shown on the purchaser's services and freely chosen by the service that is not the purchaser of the exploitation rights broadcasting the images".

The Conseil d'État considers that the solution to the problem is bound up with the question of whether live radio coverage of a sporting competition falls within the scope of the "exploitation rights" referred to in these provisions and whether the rules that arise out of these provisions in respect of television can also be applied to radio. It found, however, that these provisions were ambiguous because of the simultaneous use in the second paragraph of Article 18-2 of the terms "audiovisual communication services" and "images". Because of this ambiguity, the Conseil d'État held that the decision of the national football league was not in fact "manifestly" unlawful. According to the terms of Article L. 521-2 of the Administrative Justice Code, use of the urgent procedure depends on the "manifestly unlawful" nature of the infringement of a fundamental freedom, and the application on the part of the "Sport Libre" EIG and Radio France was therefore rejected. The case itself remains pending and the decision of the Conseil d'État is therefore keenly awaited.

Conseil d'État, order in an urgent matter, 18 March 2002, "Sport Libre" EIG and another.
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