Copyright, Football and European Media Rights

– Prof Raymond Boyle
Summary
This project examined the developing relationship between copyright and media rights in European football. It explores the impact of various legal challenges on the value of national and international rights for football for both broadcast organisations and football rights holders including the FA and UEFA. The research pursued the ramifications of The Murphy case (Case C-403/08 FA Premier League v QC Leisure and Case C-429/08 Karen Murphy v Media Protection Services Limited) for existing business models for both rights holders (FA Premier League, UEFA) and broadcasters such as Sky and Canal Plus. The project analysed the strategic responses of pan-European broadcasters in the field, and key football content rights holders at both the national (UK/France) and European level.
Project outputs include:
- Copyright, football and European media rights – This Working Paper provides examples of sports rights digital issues and reflects on the EU Digital Single Market proposals.
- UEFA Invited Symposium on Media, Communication and Rights Issues – Project findings were presented at an invited symposium hosted by the Swedish FA and UEFA in Stockholm in June 2015.
- Project poster – Project activities have been summarised in this poster which was presented at the CREATe All Hands conference in September 2014.