Broadcasting rights (also known as media rights) are legal rights which a broadcasting organisation owns and negotiates for the purpose of with a commercial exploitation.
In sports, Copyright and related rights, particularly those relating to broadcasting, underpin the relationship between sport and television and other media. Television and media organisations pay huge sums of money for the exclusive license which equates with a right to broadcast top sporting events live.
For most sports organizations, the sale of broadcasting and media licenses is now the biggest source of revenue, generating the funds needed to finance major sporting events, refurbish stadiums, and contribute to the development of sport at grassroots level. The European football league is of importance here, through a complex tender process, broadcasters compete to acquire the rights to broadcast game, especially the European football league games and become the official rights-holder of the competition. The English Premier League which has always been way ahead in terms of earnings thanks to its lucrative TV rights in comparison with other leagues operates a centralised distribution model. The EPL has also been known to allocate the incoming revenues generated from the TV rights, across all clubs with the aim of creating balance in the competition and avoiding a huge financial disparity.
When the Premier League was formed in 1992 a set of new rules and changes emerged in the media rights landscape. As previously mentioned, a new profit-driven mentality was put in place as the cornerstone of the new club organisation.
1992 marked the starting point for a new golden era of sports media rights as the Premier League imposed new rules as the influence of the league grew in the international and domestic media market. The launch of the Premier League on Sky Sports is what shifted the proverbial goalpost. One of the main technological improvements was the introduction of subscription-based broadcasting that used encryption of the satellite signal as a turnstile to allow viewers access. Technological improvements related to the coverage of the games stood out such as the increased number of cameras installed around the pitch to cover the action from a wide array of TV angles previously unseen.
Football clubs own their rights however they give the Premier League a mandate to license these rights centrally to potential buyers. The rights ownership and licensing system is governed by the Premier League’s constitution and any change must be approved by two-thirds of the clubs. Some of these rights can be utilised directly by the clubs. Under the club license agreement it is defined which rights may be used; however, clubs are not allowed to sell these rights to third parties.
DSTV as a Sport Broadcaster
DSTV is a sub-saharan direct broadcasting satellite service from South Africa, and the largest operator in Africa, founded in 1995 under the company Multichoice. It owns the rights to broadcast the premier league and a host of other sports in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
DSTV with 10.26m subscribers as at 2019 according to Statista.com is also the broadcast PARTNER of the Premier League in Nigeria. This deal has ensured that the popular channel ‘SuperSport’ of DSTV will remain the official broadcaster of the Premier League until 2025.
These rights also extend across the entire broadcast territory of Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, in all languages and through all distribution platforms, including television, internet and mobile.
Image Rights in Relation to Broadcasting Rights
In the world of football, image rights are simply the right a player possesses to control, sell, license and otherwise monetise his or her likeness i.e. his or her image, name, nickname, voice, signature and all other characteristics unique to the player.
Image rights can be broadly defined, using the expression “image” not in its narrow sense of “likeness” but in its wider sense to encapsulate the “persona” or “brand”, of the player/athlete.
At the beginning of a player’s career, the player’s image rights are owned by the player in so far as they cannot be exploited, licensed or assigned without his or her prior consent. Savvy elite international players will license their image rights to three broad categories of licensee (i) their club (ii) their personal sponsors and (iii) national association. In parts of the west, particularly the United Kingdom, the player’s manager will advise that a separate business is registered to manage the player’s image rights contracts and receive income.
Under the NPFL Rules, the player’s image rights obligations are expressly incorporated in Form 7 of the Rules, specifically in Clause 4.3 through 4.7. Clause 4.3 of the contract is the assignment clause that recognises the club’s rights to exploit the player’s image rights. By clause 4.4, the player agrees not to undertake any promotional activities on the club’s behalf nor assign his image rights to any other person. The player is further obliged under article 4.5 of the contract to undertake promotional activities on behalf of the club. This clause is complemented by clause 4.6 where the player expressly assigns the copyright to his photographs to the club and grants to the club, permission to exploit his image for promotional purposes. However, it is pertinent to point out that the exploitation of a player’s image imposes a corresponding obligation on the club to ensure that such usage is not subjected to any greater usage than that of his teammates.
The club is also obliged to ensure that the player’s photograph or image does not imply an endorsement by the player of the product or service being promoted. This was the thrust of the dispute between Mohammed Salah and the Egypt Football Federation where the player’s representatives alleged that their client’s image was subjected to greater use vis a vis that of his teammates and gave the impression that the player endorsed the use of Egypt Air.
Significantly, the recent case of Real Madrid with La Liga challenging the Spanish soccer body’s authority to commercialise the league’s broadcast rights. A Madrid court dismissed the reigning Spanish champions’ legal claim, ruling in favour of La Liga’s centralised rights management and its responsibility to increase the value of the competition domestically and abroad.
Real Madrid had asked the court to force La Liga to provide more thorough financial accounts for the 2018/19 season, including details on the sale of the league’s broadcast rights. In addition, the club wanted the court to reverse certain agreements approved at La Liga’s general assembly in October 2019; while it also claimed it was due a payment of €23.9 million (US$28.9 million) from the league.
The court ruling dismissed all those claims. La Liga has the unequivocal role in the commercial management of audiovisual rights and the obligation that this entails to guarantee optimal management and investment.
It is pertinent to note that clubs that have traditionally paid their players solely for playing football, this relationship has evolved and commercial drivers push football into the entertainment and brand space, clubs are looking for a variety of ways to ‘monetise’ and grow their revenue and fan base.
As such, clubs are entering into a variety of commercial partnerships whereby brands want to be associated with clubs and their high-profile players. Some Premier League clubs have in excess of 60 commercial partners, all seeking the right to use images, which in this case includes DSTV (images includes the use of high-profile players in their advertising).
In relation to Wilfred Ndidi’s case, and the use of his image on huge billboards in Nigeria to announce the incoming new season, DSTV is the official broadcast partners of the Premier League in Nigeria and as such may have authorisation to use images of EPL stars in their branding and products. There is a need to bring the awareness about broadcasting and media rights to the general public.
