Deliberation of January 15, 2013 on the conditions for showing short excerpts from sports competitions and non-sports events of great interest to the public.

The French Superior Audiovisual Council,

Having regard to Directive 2010/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 10, 2010, in particular Article 15 ;

Having regard to the French Sports Code, in particular article L. 333-7 ;

Having regard to Act no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986, as amended, on freedom of communication, in particular articles 1, 3-1 and 20-4;

Having regard to the opinion of the Comité national olympique et sportif français ;

Having regard to the responses to the public consultation relating to the determination of conditions for the diffusion of brief excerpts from sports competitions opened by the French Superior Audiovisual Council on April 17, 2012;

After deliberation,

Decides:

Law no. 2012-158 of February 1, 2012 aimed at strengthening sports ethics and athletes' rights amended the sixth paragraph of article L. 333-7 of the French Sports Code, which now states: "The French Superior Audiovisual Council shall set the conditions for the diffusion of the brief excerpts provided for in this article after browsing the French National Olympic and Sports Committee and the organizers of sporting events mentioned in article L. 331-5.".

Under the provisions of article 20-4 of law no. 86-1067 of September 30 1986 on freedom of communication: "Article L. 333-7 of the French Sports Code is applicable to events of any kind which are of great interest to the public".

In light of the aforementioned legislative provisions and the contributions made by sports event organizers and other interested parties to the public consultation opened by the Council on April 17, 2012, the purpose of the present deliberation is to set the conditions for the diffusion of brief excerpts from sports competitions and non-sports events of great interest to the public that have given rise to the granting of audiovisual exploitation rights (hereinafter referred to as "brief excerpts").

1. Scope of application

The present ruling applies to all television services established in France, and to their on-demand audiovisual media services which make the same program available to the public on a deferred broadcasting basis (hereinafter also referred to as "catch-up TV services").

2. Exercise of the right to short extracts

Television services holding audiovisual exploitation rights to a sports competition or non-sporting event of major interest to the public, and their on-demand audiovisual media services which make the same program available to the public on a deferred basis, shall not prevent another television service and its on-demand audiovisual media services which make the same program available to the public on a deferred basis from showing brief extracts of this competition or event taken free of charge, provided that the following conditions are met:
- the excerpts are shown after the end of the first broadcast of the program of the rights holder service from which the excerpts are taken;
- the rights holder is clearly identified during the diffusion of each excerpt, for a minimum duration of five seconds.

3. Origin of images taken under the right to short extracts

The right of access to short extracts of a sports competition or non-sports event of great interest to the public by electronic public communication services which do not hold the rights to the competition or event concerned applies both to live broadcasts and to summaries shown in news magazines offered by a rights-holding service when the short extracts taken relate to parts of the competition or event which have not been broadcast live by a rights-holding service.

4. Conditions for the diffusion of short extracts by a television service that does not hold the rights to the same images

Images of a sports competition or non-sports event of great interest to the public taken under the right to short extracts may be shown during a news programme.

News programmes as defined in the present resolution are defined as follows:
- regular news broadcasts and bulletins;
- multidisciplinary or general-information sports magazines, broadcast at least once a week;
- single-discipline sports magazines, broadcast at least once a week and lasting at least thirty minutes, provided that the images of sports competitions shown do not mainly come from access under the right to short extracts, and relate to at least three competitions at the same level of sport (these two criteria being assessed on an edition-by-edition basis).

For news programmes with a frequency of at least daily, short extracts may be used within 24 hours of the end of the first diffusion of the rights holder's programme from which the short extracts were taken.

For news programmes with a lower frequency (up to weekly), short extracts may be used for a given programme only in the first edition of that programme following the end of the first diffusion of the rights holder's programme from which the short extracts were taken.

Brief excerpts may not constitute the entirety of the images shown as part of news programme sections within the meaning of the present resolution, which are subject to a specific sponsorship scheme.

5. Maximum duration for the diffusion of brief excerpts by a television service that does not hold the rights to the same images

Brief excerpts may not be shown for more than one minute and thirty seconds per hour of airtime per day of competition or event.

For the purposes of this resolution, a day of competition or event is considered to be a period running from the start of the competition or event on a given calendar day until midnight of the same day.

By way of derogation from the previous paragraph, a day of regular team sports competition, within the meaning of the present deliberation, is considered to be the period during which all the matches in the same competition phase are played (for example, on the day of the present deliberation, in the case of a "day" of League 1 soccer played entirely over a weekend, from the kick-off of the first match on Friday evening or Saturday afternoon to the end of the last match on Sunday evening).

For a given competition or event, excerpts must be identical for at least four consecutive hours from the time of their first diffusion.

In the case of regular team sports competitions where several matches are organized per competition day, the images shown are limited, for each competition day, to extracts from the number of matches immediately below half the number of matches in the competition day (for example, on the date of this resolution, four League 1 soccer matches per day, or three Top 14 rugby matches per day).

In the case of the diffusion of images from a sports competition lasting six minutes or less, taken under the right to short excerpts, the duration of the excerpts does not exceed 25% of the total duration of the competition, with a maximum duration of 15 seconds.

6. Length of time brief extracts are made available to the public by a television service that does not hold the rights to the same images of the competition or event concerned on its catch-up TV service.

Brief extracts made available to the public by a catch-up TV service that does not hold exclusive rights are made available to the public for a maximum period of seven days from the first diffusion on the television service whose programs the catch-up TV service repeats.

7. Encouragement to diversify sports disciplines

The Council encourages all television service editors to diversify the sports disciplines they cover.

The present deliberation will be effective from February 1, 2013 and will be published in the Journal officiel de la République française.

Paris, January 15, 2013.

For the French Superior Audiovisual Council :
Le président,
M. BOYON