On Leap Year Day 2024, Squire Patton Boggs held its inaugural women’s sport symposium, Leap into the Future of Women’s Sport. Bringing together key figures from across the sports industry, the Symposium focussed on what is next for commercialisation, investment and growth, and maternity and parental policies. For a flavour of the talking points, please … Continue Reading
Our dedicated Women’s Sport Group hosted its inaugural Women’s Sport Symposium on 29 February 2024 to discuss key issues across the women’s sporting landscape. Amongst other topics, a panel of key figures and experts, which was chaired by Sarah Butler (Founder of Sports Business Connected), discussed the pertinent issue of the commercialisation of women’s sports … Continue Reading
In the wake of the announcement by the English Premier League (EPL) of the “largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK”[1] at the end of last year, this article considers key takeaways, as well as how this latest EPL deal compares to previous deals and those of other major international sports leagues.… Continue Reading
Following on from the growing popularity and success of the Women’s Super League and the great form of the England’s Women’s Team, there is a real sense of anticipation and excitement ahead of the UEFA Women’s European Championship finals, to be kicked off this Wednesday by England’s Lionesses versus Austria. In late April, the UK … Continue Reading
Last month, it was reported that the value of the overseas broadcasting deals entered into by the English Premier League (‘EPL‘) nudged past the £5 billion threshold for the 2022-25 rights cycle, whilst also surpassing the value of domestic deals for the same cycle for the first time. Given these substantial investments, it is no … Continue Reading
Scale of the piracy problem The threats posed to the funding of sport by media rights piracy is nothing new. However, as recognised by the European Parliament in its resolution published 19 May 2021, developments in digital technology and the proliferation of access to digital content (in particular through IPTV) have, in turn, increased the … Continue Reading
The Premier League resumed on 12 September 2020 and initially plans had been in place for an October return for fans to be allowed in stadia, with home fans only. Yesterday, following an announcement from the government of a spike in coronavirus cases in the UK, those plans were put on hold indefinitely. Back in … Continue Reading
With less than one week to go until the Premier League resumes, English football fans are going to have the opportunity to watch every game for the first time ever. On 3 April 2020 UEFA announced that it had accepted a request from the Premier League to suspend the 3pm blackout rule which has prevented … Continue Reading
Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe dropped, what is known as a Woj Bomb, last week as they announced that the NBA is in high level discussions with the NBPA (the National Basketball Players Association) and broadcasting partners concerning “sweeping and dramatic changes to the league calendar that include a reseeding of the four conference finalists, … Continue Reading
Between 2016 and 2019 the Premier League was paid a record breaking £5 billion for UK rights by broadcasters for 168 games a season. A new deal, effective from 2019 to 2022, will see the Premier League make at least £4.46 billion from the UK rights to broadcast matches (with one broadcaster not disclosing how … Continue Reading
UEFA recently announced that it will be launching its own over the top (“OTT”) streaming platform within the next few months. When the provisionally named ‘UEFA TV’ goes live in time for the 2019/20 season, it will allow fans outside of Europe and North America to view Euro 2020 and future editions of the UEFA … Continue Reading
“The richest athlete contract in sports history”. That is how ESPN described the deal between boxer Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and streaming service DAZN, which is worth a reported $365 million for 11 fights. The agreement with Canelo sits alongside a broader “exclusive” partnership between DAZN and Canelo’s promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, which is due to … Continue Reading
Last year, Sports Shorts covered the emergence of the first “live blocking injunctions”, which were obtained by the Premier League both in respect of the final portion of the 2016/17 season (in a test case before the High Court in March 2017) and subsequently in respect of the entire 2017/18 season. The blocking injunctions require … Continue Reading
The European Parliament has voted to reject proposed legislation designed to prohibit ‘geoblocking’. The vote represents a major set-back in the European Commission’s “Digital Single Market” strategy (covered by Sports Shorts previously). The vote comes only weeks after the European Commission announced an agreement with the European Parliament and member states to allow online subscriptions … Continue Reading
On 28 September, the European Commission released a Communication on tackling illegal online content, under the heading “Towards an enhanced responsibility of platforms”. The communication sets out (non-legally-binding) guidelines for online platforms to move to “step up the fight” against illegal online content. Tackling infringing content online is a well-recognised problem for the owners of … Continue Reading
In May 2017, Sports Shorts covered the first ‘live’ blocking injunction ordered by the High Court in favour of the Premier League – a decision which represented a win not only for rightsholders but also, unusually, for the defendant ISPs in their capacity as Premier League rightsholders. The order, which applied during the final weeks … Continue Reading
A high court decision in March granting the Football Association Premier League (“FAPL”) an injunction has marked the latest stand by the Premier League against illegal streaming of matches in the UK. The judgment is both a response to, and made possible by, technological advances and allows for real time blocking of streams accessed via … Continue Reading
On 9 February 2017, leading UK internet search engines and representatives from the creative industries (including film, sports, music, and publishing to name a few) entered into a landmark agreement, with assistance from the UK Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”), to cooperate in combatting online copyright infringement. The agreement, which takes the form of a Voluntary … Continue Reading
I do CrossFit. There. I said it. At the very beginning of this post, thus conforming to most stereotypes about those wedded to the strength and conditioning programme first devised by husband and wife team Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai. Since first “Forging Elite Fitness”™ in 2000, CrossFit has become the largest gym organisation globally … Continue Reading
The Court of Appeal has recently handed down judgment in the latest in a line of cases relating to the showing of Premier League football matches in UK pubs using foreign satellite decoder cards. The Court of Appeal found in favour of the Premier League, confirming that unauthorised use of a decoder card licensed for … Continue Reading
English fans of Spanish football may have been disappointed this weekend not to find El Clásico, the match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, in their TV guides. The match kicked off at 3:15pm UK time and finished 1 – 1, with honours even, but was not shown on English television. While El Clásico represents one … Continue Reading
On Monday (28 November), the European Council announced that it has agreed a general approach to a draft regulation to prohibit “unjustified geoblocking” between member states, including confirmation that the regulation should not apply to sports broadcasts. The draft regulation formed part of the proposals adopted by the Commission earlier this year on the Digital … Continue Reading
On Friday 21 October 2016, the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) announced that it was terminating its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with UEFA as a result of changes being made to the qualifying system for both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League for three seasons from 2018/2019 onward. The EPFL … Continue Reading
Last month, following the first live streamed NFL game on Twitter, Sports Shorts posted on the new era of digital sports consumption. Less than three weeks later (on 3 October), Sky has launched its new virtual reality app. The free app is available to iPhone and Android users (or at least those who own an appropriate … Continue Reading
