MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come out with its news access guidelines for broadcasters in India intending to cover the cricket World Cup starting next month.
Being just unveiled, news broadcasters are going to take a common stance through the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) after studying the footage cap thoroughly.
According to the guidelines, a news broadcaster may broadcast a maximum of 5.5 minutes of fresh footage of the cricket World Cup per News Day, provided always that:
(a) not more than a maximum of two minutes of Fresh Footage may be broadcast per hour of broadcasting; and
(b) the number of repeats of any Fresh Footage is restricted to a maximum of two exhibitions per hour of broadcasting.
These guidelines are solely for bona fide news broadcasters registered under the category of “News and Current Affairs” channels according to India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
They are issued on the principle of copyright fair-use principles and are valid until 24 hours after the end of the last match of the event.
It might be recalled that last year the Indian Premier League (IPL) had a tussle with news broadcasters over terms and conditions. At the last moment a solution was found.
The use by a news broadcaster of live footage is not permitted at any time under any circumstances. There must be a minimum of at least 60 minutes delay following the live broadcast of any footage by the official/host broadcaster before any extract of such Footage may be used by the news broadcaster
A news broadcaster may broadcast a maximum of six minutes of archival footage per day, provided always that:
(a) a maximum of two minutes of the Archival Footage may be used per hour of broadcasting; and
(b) the number of repeat exhibitions should be limited to four per News Day with not less than a two-hour interval between each exhibition.
The use of fresh footage and the use of Archival Footage pursuant to paragraph 8 above is strictly limited in each case to use within news and/or current affairs programmes. No use of fresh footage and/or archival footage is permitted in any circumstances for any commercial purposes.
News broadcasters are allowed live video streaming of their news channels on their official nominated websites as long as it is a simulcast of the entire channel as aired on the broadcaster’s television news channel and is not broadcast online on-demand, in a deferred manner or provided as highlight packages or clips. Subject to the aforementioned, news broadcasters shall not display deferred or Archival Footage, whether as part of news bulletins or otherwise, on their own website(s) or via their account or page on a third-party video-upload site such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook, etc.
A news broadcaster may commercially exploit a news and/or sports and/or current affairs and/or other programme within which Fresh Footage and/or Archival Footage is broadcast as a whole, in the regular course, through normal advertising breaks usual in programming of news channels, provided always that no advertising, sting, logo, graphic and/or any other commercial (morphing) activity occurs immediately before, immediately after or during the Fresh Footage and/or Archival Footage and no association is created, suggested or implied between the use of Fresh Footage and/or Archival Footage and any third party brand or product.
To clarify further, no programme, bulletin or segment (whether a news or sports bulletin, special programme or promotional programme) that uses Fresh Footage and/or
Archival footage may have a title or other sponsor and no advertisement may be used or repeated in the regular advertising breaks during the programme in such a manner as to create, suggest or imply an association between the advertiser and the Footage or the Event.
Courtesy bugs acknowledging IDI and ESS must be pasted by the Designated News Broadcaster, with due prominence, throughout the broadcast of any Fresh Footage and/or Archival Footage.
News broadcasters must use the correct name of the Event (being either ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 or the shorter title „ICC Cricket World Cup) and the Event Logo in any and all broadcasts in which the Event is mentioned or referred to, whether or not including the broadcast of any clips of fresh footage and/or archival footage. For the avoidance of doubt, there should not be any direct commercial association created, suggested or implied between any third party brand or product and any Event Marks.
In the event that the Event logo or the ESPN Star Sports (ESS) logo should be covered by the logo of the Designated News Broadcaster, the news broadcaster must include a courtesy line extended at the bottom of, or elsewhere, on the screen.
News broadcasters may only use footage as above without financial obligation to IDI. The ICC has warned that any use beyond as permitted under these Guidelines, if not under a prior bilateral agreement between the relevant Designated News Broadcaster and IDI, will be treated as a violation and, in the case of Archival Footage, shall be subject to payments in accordance with the Footage Licensing Rate Card. It is $800 (0-60 seconds) and archival gootage is for $1000 (0-60 seconds)
IDI may exercise its other remedies, including possible suspension of media accreditation, pending payment of such fees for overuse of Footage. It is further clarified that IDI has certain legal obligations to its official broadcaster and is only able to grant rights hereunder (including rights subject to the Footage Licensing Rate Card) subject to these limitations, which include that only an aggregate 10 minutes of Archival Footage from the events listed in Schedule 2 may be used in any one programme.
If the news broadcaster’s use exceeds such limitations, in addition to agreeing to pay IDI the fees for overuse under the Footage Licensing Rate Card as above, the Designated News Broadcaster hereby (i) agrees to indemnify IDI for any and all losses or damages that may be due from IDI to its official broadcaster as a result of the violation and breach of their agreement resulting from such overuse and (ii) acknowledges that it may be subject to IDI’s official broadcaster’s legal remedies directly for such overuse.
IDI retains and, to the extent required, is hereby granted by the relevant copyright owner governed by these Guidelines, the rights to monitor and enforce compliance by Designated News Broadcasters and associated and unassociated third parties with these Guidelines (whether by means of anti-infringement actions, legal proceedings or otherwise) and with the copyright law in force.
In all such cases the relevant Designated News Broadcaster will not undertake any act to obstruct, nullify or obviate the rights of IDI granted hereunder.
The ICC has said that the usage by news broadcasters of footage in connection with the World Cup shall be monitored by a Designated Monitoring Agency on behalf of IDI and IDI expressly reserves all of its legal rights and remedies against any Designated News Broadcaster that breaches these guidelines.
So how are the Indian broadcasters reacting to the guidelines? Says BAG Films and Media CMD Anurradha Prasad, “The NBA has to take a call on the issue. Members will go along with what has been decided. It is important that everybody is on the same page.”
