United Kingdom
[GB] Regulator Publishes Amended Code for Televising Listed Sporting Events
IRIS 1999-2:1/22
Tony Prosser
University of Bristol Law School
The Independent Television Commission, the UK regulator of commercial broadcasting, has published a revised "Code on Sports and Other Listed Events". This is now divided into Group A and Group B events. The former are those which cannot be covered live on an exclusive basis without the consent of the Commission; they include the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup Finals and the European Football Championship Finals. Group B events can be shown live on channels other than the BBC, Channel 3 or Channel 4 ( i.e., the universally available non-subscription channels) only if secondary coverage is made available on those channels. Secondary coverage includes delayed coverage or edited highlights. The Code includes a new definition of highlights, as 10% or 30 minutes for an event lasting over an hour, whichever is the greater. Examples of Group B events are cricket test matches played in England, Ryder Cup golf, and the World Athletic Championships.
References
This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.