This Saturday, the Champions League final in Turkey will take place between Manchester City and Inter Milan. As with any major sporting event, many venues such as bars, restaurants, community centers and municipalities will want to screen the Champions League final and invite others to watch them. But is this legally permissible? And under what conditions? Let's get it in order.
Champions League footage and broadcasts are the intellectual property of UEFA and are protected by copyright. Therefore, UEFA permits, in accordance with the conditions set by it, which body will receive the right to public broadcast of Champions League matches in each country. This year, as in the past, the owner of the broadcasting rights to the Champions League matches in Israel is the Sports Channel Company and is entitled to grant a permit to broadcast the Champions League matches in the territory of the State of Israel.
An important distinction must be made between private screening and public screening. A screening that is private – that is, one that is done in a private home for friends or family – does not require special permission. On the other hand, a public screening event is any screening of broadcasts of Champions League matches to a group of people or an audience in any place other than a private home.
For example: screenings in bars, pubs, restaurants, stadiums, offices, cinemas, theaters, hotels, educational institutions, community centers, banquet halls, national parks and more – will be considered public screenings. In any such location, public broadcast of the games requires prior approval and payment of a license fee.
Therefore, anyone interested in making the broadcast of Champions League matches available to the public must first contact the sports channel and arrange with it the license to broadcast the match or matches, unless the business has arranged an annual permit to broadcast the content of the sports channel, and Champions League broadcasts are included in this permit.
The price of the license usually varies according to the circumstances of the screening and the question of how many people will be exposed (or may be exposed) to the screening, whether the requesting entity is a business or not, and various other considerations.
After arranging the screening license, it will be possible to hold the event, but of course it is necessary to make sure that the other permits required for holding a public event must be obtained.
* If you find a discrepancy between what is stated in this article and the rules published on the Sports Channel website - please act according to the Sports Channel. The foregoing should not be construed as legal advice and/or a substitute for legal advice.
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The writer is a partner in the Intellectual Property Department at S. Friedman, Abramson & Co.
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