Sport Broadcasting Rights and the Geo-Blocking Revolution
Sport Broadcasting Rights and the Geo-Blocking Revolution

Summary/Abstract: The sale of sport broadcasting rights as copyrights generate the most significant financial transactions of the European services market. It is a global phenomenon that in case of spectator sports an increasing part of the sport associations’ revenues; today generally more than half of them, is accounted for by the royalties collected for the broadcasts on different platforms. The economic importance of sport has been provided for by several European Union documents since the seventies, and this emphasis also appears in the practice of the European Court of Justice. While the mature case-law in sport cases is well-known in terms of freedom to work, in the scope of freedom of services, with regard to its potential restrictability, some significant decisions transforming the market were made in the subject of broadcasts, and more specifically in sport broadcasting rights. This issue which founded the subsequent EU-level regulation of the prohibition of restriction on a territorial basis, is discussed in more detail below.

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