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.

(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.

(6) Council Directive 93/83/EEC (5) facilitates cross-border satellite broadcasting and retransmission by cable of television and radio programmes from other Member States. However, the provisions of that Directive on transmissions of broadcasting organisations are limited to satellite transmissions and, therefore, do not apply to online services ancillary to broadcasts. Furthermore, the provisions concerning retransmissions of television and radio programmes from other Member States are limited to simultaneous, unaltered and unabridged retransmission by cable or microwave systems and do not cover retransmissions by means of other technologies.

(7) Accordingly, cross-border provision of online services that are ancillary to broadcasts, and retransmissions of television and radio programmes originating in other Member States, should be facilitated by adapting the legal framework on the exercise of copyright and related rights relevant for those activities. That adaptation should be done by taking account of the financing and production of creative content, and, in particular, of audiovisual works.

(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.

(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.

(16) This Directive should allow agreements concluded between a collective management organisation and operators of retransmission services for rights that are subject to mandatory collective management under this Directive to be extended to apply to the rights of rightholders who are not represented by that collective management organisation, without those rightholders being allowed to exclude their works or other subject matter from the application of that mechanism.

  In cases where there is more than one collective management organisation that manages the rights of the relevant category for its territory, it should be for the Member State, in respect of the territory of which the operator of a retransmission service seeks to clear the rights for a retransmission, to determine which collective management organisation or organisations have the right to grant or refuse the authorisation for a retransmission.

(17) Any rights held by broadcasting organisations themselves in respect of their broadcasts, including rights in the content of programmes, should not be subject to the mandatory collective management of rights applicable for retransmissions. Operators of retransmission services and broadcasting organisations generally have ongoing commercial relations, and as a result the identity of broadcasting organisations is known to operators of retransmission services. Accordingly, it is comparatively simple for those operators to clear the rights with broadcasting organisations. As a consequence, to obtain the necessary licences from broadcasting organisations, operators of retransmission services do not face the same burden as they face when seeking to obtain licences from holders of rights in works and other protected subject matter included in the television and radio programmes they retransmit.

  Therefore, there is no need for simplification of the licensing process with regard to rights held by broadcasting organisations. It is, however, necessary to ensure that where broadcasting organisations and operators of retransmission services enter into negotiations, they negotiate in good faith regarding the licensing of rights for the retransmissions covered by this Directive.

  Directive 2014/26/EU provides for similar rules applicable to collective management organisations.

(18) The rules provided for in this Directive concerning the rights in retransmission exercised by broadcasting organisations in respect of their own transmissions should not limit the choice of rightholders to transfer their rights either to a broadcasting organisation or to a collective management organisation, thereby allowing them to have a direct share in the remuneration paid by the operator of a retransmission service.

(19) Member States should be able to apply the rules on retransmission established in this Directive and in Directive 93/83/EEC to situations where both the initial transmission and the retransmission take place within their territory.

(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.

(21) When broadcasting organisations transmit their programme-carrying signals directly to the public, thereby carrying out an initial act of transmission, and also simultaneously transmit those signals to other organisations through the technical process of direct_injection, for example to ensure the quality of the signals for retransmission purposes, the transmissions by those other organisations constitute a separate act of communication to the public from the one carried out by the broadcasting organisation.

  In those situations, the rules on retransmissions laid down in this Directive and in Directive 93/83/EEC, as amended by this Directive, should apply.

(25) This Directive respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

  While this Directive may result in an interference with the exercise of the rights of rightholders, insofar as mandatory collective management takes place for the exercise of the right of communication to the public with regard to retransmission services, it is necessary to prescribe the application of mandatory collective management in a targeted manner and to limit it to specific services.

(26) Since the objectives of this Directive, namely promoting the cross-border provision of ancillary_online_services for certain types of programmes and facilitating retransmissions of television and radio programmes originating in other Member States, cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States but can rather, by reason of the scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union.

  In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives. As concerns the cross-border provision of ancillary_online_services, this Directive does not oblige broadcasting organisations to provide such services across borders. Neither does this Directive oblige operators of retransmission services to include in their services television or radio programmes originating in other Member States. This Directive concerns only the exercise of certain retransmission rights to the extent necessary to simplify the licensing of copyright and related rights for such services and with regard to television and radio programmes originating in other Member States.