Euro 2012 broadcast is possible in cafes, bars and restaurants

Recently ‘inspectors’ started visit Uzhgorod public catering facilities and warned cafes, bars and restaurants’ owners about the Euro 2012 matches public broadcasting inadmissibility by threatening them with significant penalties. The matches broadcast, supposedly is possible only under the public broadcast license from UEFA.

uzhgorod.in asked the executive director of the district USPP in Transcarpathian Alan Kaprial to clarify the situation:- According to the Article 48 of the UEFA charter, the exclusive right to broadcast and use, and authorize the use of matches, that are under the UEFA jurisdiction, both live broadcasting and recording, as a whole or partially belongs to this organization and entities that are the part of its organization. It means that the primary football matches broadcasting rights has UEFA.

All the Euro 2012 matches broadcast out of your house are considered as a public broadcast. You must get the UEFA license for the public broadcasting. But UEFA deliberately made an exception to these licensing requirements for those public broadcasting that match all the listed below conditions:

1. Screen size that is used less than 3 meters diagonally.
2. The establishment’s seating capacity does not exceed 150 visitors.
3. There is no fee for entry or sponsorship (note: the food and beverages sale is allowed).

Thus, we can see that 90% of the local public catering establishments are entitled to broadcast the Euro 2012 matches without any licenses. Detailed information about the above mentioned requirements is placed on the official UEFA website on the links: 

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/ITT/competitions/EURO/01/64/94/84/1649484_DOWNLOAD.pdf

http://ua.uefa.com/uefaeuro/abouteuro/businessopportunities/publicscreening/

There are different national lawyers opinions on the issue, who claim that ‘From the standpoint of Ukrainian legislation the football match television broadcast is the related rights object and is protected under the Civil Code of Ukraine, as well as by the special law “On Copyright and Related Rights”. National Television Company holds property rights of the broadcasting organizations, including the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit other persons from their programs public display by means of broadcasting and retransmission. According to the law provisions the football match 2012 broadcast in the public catering establishments is exceptional NTC property right, and therefore it can be done only due to the permission.’

However, there exists a significant legal contradiction is such a position. How can we require a separate permit for public broadcasting when UEFA, as the primary football matches broadcast rights owner, officially allowed broadcasting to such a separate category of visitors including the public catering establishment.