(4) Operators of retransmission services typically offer multiple programmes comprising a multitude of works and other protected subject matter and have a very short time frame for obtaining the necessary licences and, hence, face a significant rights clearance burden.
Authors, producers and other rightholders also risk having their works and other protected subject matter used without authorisation or payment of appropriate remuneration.
Such remuneration for the retransmission of their works and other protected subject matter is important to ensure that there is a diverse content offer, which is also in the interest of consumers.
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(8) This Directive should cover ancillary_online_services offered by a broadcasting organisation, which have a clear and subordinate relationship with the broadcasting organisation's broadcasts. Those services include services that give access to television and radio programmes in a strictly linear manner, simultaneously to the broadcast, and services that give access, within a defined time period after the broadcast, to television and radio programmes which have been previously broadcast by the broadcasting organisation, so-called ‘catch-up services’.
In addition, the ancillary_online_services covered by this Directive include services that give access to material that enriches or otherwise expands television and radio programmes broadcast by the broadcasting organisation, including by way of previewing, extending, supplementing or reviewing the relevant programme's content.
This Directive should apply to ancillary_online_services that are provided to users by broadcasting organisations together with the broadcasting service.
It should also apply to ancillary_online_services that, while having a clear and subordinate relationship with the broadcast, can be accessed by users separately from the broadcasting service without there being a precondition for the users to have to obtain access to that broadcasting service, for example via a subscription.
This does not affect the freedom of broadcasting organisations to offer such ancillary_online_services free of charge or against payment.
The provision of access to individual works or other protected subject matter that have been incorporated in a television or radio programme, or to works or other protected subject matter that are not related to any programme broadcast by the broadcasting organisation, such as services giving access to individual musical or audiovisual works, music albums or videos, for example video-on-demand services, should not fall within the scope of the services covered by this Directive.
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(12) Since the provision of, the access to or the use of an ancillary_online_service is, under this Directive, deemed to occur solely in the Member State in which the broadcasting organisation has its principal establishment, while, de facto, the ancillary_online_service can be provided across borders to other Member States, it is necessary to ensure that in setting the amount of the payment to be made for the rights in question, the parties take into account all aspects of the ancillary_online_service, such as the features of the service, including the duration of the online availability of programmes included in the service, the audience, including the audience in the Member State in which the broadcasting organisation has its principal establishment and in other Member States in which the ancillary_online_service is accessed and used, and the language versions provided.
It should nevertheless remain possible to use specific methods for calculating the amount of payment for the rights subject to the country of origin principle, such as methods based on the revenues of the broadcasting organisation generated by the online service, which are used, in particular, by radio broadcasting organisations.
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(15) To retransmit initial transmissions of television and radio programmes, operators of retransmission services have to obtain an authorisation from the holders of the exclusive right of communication to the public of works or other protected subject matter.
In order to provide legal certainty to the operators of retransmission services and to overcome disparities in national law regarding such retransmission services, rules similar to those that apply to cable retransmission as defined in Directive 93/83/EEC should apply.
The rules under that Directive include the obligation to exercise the right to grant or refuse authorisation to an operator of a retransmission service through a collective management organisation.
Under those rules, the right to grant or refuse authorisation as such remains intact, and only the exercise of that right is regulated to some extent.
Rightholders should receive appropriate remuneration for the retransmission of their works and other protected subject matter.
When determining reasonable licensing terms, including the license fee, for a retransmission in accordance with Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), the economic value of the use of the rights in trade, including the value allocated to the means of retransmission, should, inter alia, be taken into account.
This should be without prejudice to the collective exercise of the right to payment of a single equitable remuneration for performers and phonogram producers for the communication to the public of commercial phonograms as provided for in Article 8(2) of Directive 2006/115/EC, and to Directive 2014/26/EU, in particular its provisions concerning the rights of rightholders with regard to the choice of a collective management organisation.
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(20) In order to ensure that there is legal certainty and to maintain a high level of protection for rightholders, it is appropriate to provide that when broadcasting organisations transmit their programme-carrying signals by direct_injection only to signal distributors without directly transmitting their programmes to the public, and the signal distributors send those programme-carrying signals to their users to allow them to watch or listen to the programmes, only one single act of communication to the public is deemed to occur in which both the broadcasting organisations and the signal distributors participate with their respective contributions. The broadcasting organisations and the signal distributors should therefore obtain authorisation from the rightholders for their specific contribution to the single act of communication to the public.
Participation of a broadcasting organisation and a signal distributor in that single act of communication to the public should not give rise to joint liability on the part of the broadcasting organisation and the signal distributor for that act of communication to the public.
Member States should remain free to provide at national level for the arrangements for obtaining authorisation for such a single act of communication to the public, including the relevant payments to be made to the rightholders concerned, taking into account the respective exploitation of the works and other protected subject matter, by the broadcasting organisation and signal distributor, related to the single act of communication to the public.
Signal distributors face, in a similar manner to operators of retransmission services, a significant burden for rights clearance, except as regards rights held by broadcasting organisations. Member States should therefore be allowed to provide that signal distributors benefit from a mechanism of mandatory collective management of rights for their transmissions in the same way and to the same extent as operators of retransmission services for retransmissions covered by Directive 93/83/EEC and this Directive.
Where signal distributors merely provide broadcasting organisations with ‘technical means’, within the meaning of the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, to ensure that the broadcast is received or to improve the reception of that broadcast, the signal distributors should not be considered to be participating in an act of communication to the public.
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