(1) In order to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market, it is necessary to provide for wider dissemination in Member States of television and radio programmes that originate in other Member States, for the benefit of users across the Union, by facilitating the licensing of copyright and related rights in works and other protected subject matter contained in broadcasts of certain types of television and radio programmes. television and radio programmes are important means of promoting cultural and linguistic diversity and social cohesion, and of increasing access to information.
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(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.
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(3) Broadcasting organisations transmit daily many hours of television and radio programmes. Those programmes incorporate a variety of content, such as audiovisual, musical, literary or graphic works, protected under Union law by copyright or related rights or both.
That results in a complex process of clearing the rights of a multitude of rightholders, and for various categories of works and other protected subject matter.
Often the rights need to be cleared in a short time frame, in particular when preparing programmes such as news or current affairs programmes. In order to make their online services available across borders, broadcasting organisations need to have the required rights to works and other protected subject matter for all the relevant territories, which further increases the complexity of the clearance of such rights.
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(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.
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(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.
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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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(10) Given the specificities of the financing and licensing mechanisms for certain audiovisual works, which are often based on exclusive territorial licensing, it is appropriate, as regards television programmes, to limit the scope of application of the country of origin principle set out in this Directive to certain types of programmes. Those types of programmes should include news and current affairs programmes as well as a broadcasting organisation's own productions which are exclusively financed by it, including where the funds for the financing used by the broadcasting organisation for its productions come from public funds. For the purposes of this Directive, broadcasting organisations' own productions should be understood as covering productions carried out by a broadcasting organisation with the use of its own resources, but excluding productions commissioned by the broadcasting organisation to producers that are independent from the broadcasting organisation and co-productions. For the same reasons, the country of origin principle should not apply to television broadcasts of sports events under this Directive.
The country of origin principle should apply only when programmes are used by the broadcasting organisation in its own ancillary_online_services. It should not apply to the licensing of a broadcasting organisation's own productions to third parties, including to other broadcasting organisations. The country of origin principle should not affect the freedom of rightholders and broadcasting organisations to agree, in compliance with Union law, on limitations, including territorial limitations, to the exploitation of their rights.
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(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.
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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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(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.
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(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.
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