Media Act 2024

21 Contracts relating to coverage of listed events

(1) Section 99 of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (contract for exclusive right to televise listed event to be void) is amended as set out in subsections (2) and (3).

(2) For subsection (1) substitute—

“(1) Any contract entered into on or after the day on which section 21 of the Media Act 2024 comes into force which grants rights to include in a relevant service live coverage of the whole or any part of a Group A event for reception in, or in order to be accessed by members of the public in, the United Kingdom or any area of the United Kingdom is void so far as it purports—

(a) in relation to the whole or any part of the event, or

(b) in relation to reception, or access by means of the internet, in the United Kingdom or any part of the United Kingdom,

to grant those rights exclusively.”

(3) For subsection (3) substitute—

“(3) For the purposes of this section, rights for a relevant service (“the first service”) to include live coverage of all or part of a Group A event in that service for reception in, or in order to be accessed by members of the public in, the United Kingdom or any area of the United Kingdom are granted exclusively if the person granting them—

(a) has not granted such rights to include live coverage of the whole or, as the case may be, that part of the event in one or more other relevant services as are sufficient to authorise, in accordance with section 101(2) or (3) or, as the case may be, section 101(4), the inclusion in the first service of the live coverage in question, and

(b) is precluded by the terms of the contract from doing so.”

(4) Section 100 of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (contract for televising listed event must specify category of service) is amended as set out in subsections (5) and (6).

(5) For subsection (1) substitute—

“(1) Any contract entered into on or after the day on which section 21 of the Media Act 2024 comes into force is void so far as it purports to grant rights to include live coverage of the whole or any part of a listed event in a relevant service for reception in, or in order to be accessed by members of the public in, the United Kingdom, or any area of the United Kingdom, unless the contract complies with subsection (2).”

(6) In subsection (2)—

(a) for “the television programme provider” substitute “the provider of the relevant service”;

(b) in paragraph (a), for “television programme service” substitute “relevant service”;

(c) in paragraph (b), for “television programme service” substitute “relevant service”.