keyboard_tab Media online 2019/0789 EN

(2) The development of digital technologies and the internet has transformed the distribution of, and access to, television and radio programmes. Users increasingly expect to have access to television and radio programmes, both live and on-demand, through traditional channels, such as satellite or cable, and also through online services. Broadcasting organisations are therefore increasingly offering, in addition to their own broadcasts of television and radio programmes, online services ancillary to such broadcasts, such as simulcasting and catch-up services. Operators of retransmission services, which aggregate broadcasts of television and radio programmes into packages and provide them to users simultaneously with the initial transmission of those broadcasts, unaltered and unabridged, use various techniques of retransmission, such as cable, satellite, digital terrestrial, and mobile or closed circuit IP-based networks, as well as the open internet.

  Furthermore, operators that distribute television and radio programmes to users have different ways of obtaining the programme-carrying signals of broadcasting organisations, including by means of direct_injection.

  There is a growing demand, on the part of users, for access to broadcasts of television and radio programmes not only originating in their Member State, but also in other Member States. Such users include members of linguistic minorities in the Union, as well as persons who live in a Member State other than their Member State of origin.

(14) Operators of retransmission services can use different technologies when they retransmit simultaneously, in an unaltered and unabridged manner, for reception by the public, an initial transmission from another Member State of television or radio programmes. The programme-carrying signals can be obtained by operators of retransmission services from broadcasting organisations, which themselves transmit those signals to the public, in different ways, for example by capturing the signals transmitted by the broadcasting organisations or receiving the signals directly from them through the technical process of direct_injection.

  Such operators' services can be offered on satellite, digital terrestrial, mobile or closed circuit IP-based and similar networks or through internet access services as defined in Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6).

  Operators of retransmission services using such technologies for their retransmissions should therefore be covered by this Directive and benefit from the mechanism that introduces mandatory collective management of rights. In order to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards against the unauthorised use of works and other protected subject matter, which is particularly important in the case of services that are paid for, retransmission services which are offered through internet access services should be included in the scope of this Directive only where those retransmission services are provided in an environment in which only authorised users can access the retransmissions and the level of content security provided is comparable to the level of security for content transmitted over managed networks, such as cable or closed circuit IP-based networks, in which content that is retransmitted is encrypted.

  Those requirements should be feasible and adequate.