Broadcasting rights of sports events

Broadcasting rights of sports events have become a huge economic aspect as a result of the breathtaking interaction between sports and media within new consumption concepts and models, especially after historical shift from public broadcasting to private broadcasting at the end of the 20th century.What determines who owns broadcasting rights of sports events is related to its legal nature. Sports events can be categorized among literary and artistic works that bear individuality of their owners. Under such conditions, when a match becomes a indivisible whole or the participants of the match have to work under a contract of service with a sports club, the owner of the broadcasting rights are the sports clubs that employ or bring them together.When copyright law does not cover a situation, as a substitute, defense rights due to unfair competition law or law of property which grants rights to the owners or direct possessors of the area where a sports event take can provide legal protection to organizers of sports events.Central and exclusive marketing of broadcasting rights of sports events bring along crucial problems in the means of freedom of media and right to information and in competition law. Selling broadcasting rights to one buyer exclusively is a serious threat to public right to information and freedom of media. In this sense access to major sports events and rights to short extracts are enacted in European and Turkish law. Central and exclusive marketing of broadcasting rights of sports events restrict competition vertically and horizontally. Legal or factual monopoly of sports organizations in their own branches regarding broadcasting rights causes important problems in terms of prohibition of abuse of dominance.