Court Ruling Is A Draw

19 September 2007

Court Ruling Is A Draw - Sky To Continue All Rugby Shows

SKY Network Television Limited ("SKY") has welcomed an Auckland High Court ruling rejecting an attempt by MediaWorks owned TV3 to stop all use of TV3's Rugby World Cup broadcasts outside "hard news" programming. Instead the Court imposed a much more limited injunction than that sought by TV3, which only prevents SKY from using TV3's Rugby World Cup broadcasts in The Cup, The Crowd Goes Wild and Reunion. SKY can continue to use TV3's Rugby World Cup broadcasts in Sport 365 and other news programmes.

On hearing the judge's verdict, John Fellet, SKY Chief Executive said, "All we ever wanted was the same courtesy as we have given everyone else. While the judge's ruling today is disappointing in not recognising that, we are very pleased that the judge agreed that TV3's attempt to stop all use of TV3's broadcast outside "hard news" programming was unjustified. As the Court accepted, we will continue to report fairly on the Rugby World Cup, using excerpts from TV3's broadcasts, in our news and sports news programmes.

"The Cup, The Crowd Goes Wild and Reunion will continue in their current format. While the ruling means we are unable to show excerpts from TV3's Rugby World Cup broadcasts for news reporting within these particular shows - our expert commentators are still able to discuss the games and we will continue to have wide-ranging and exclusive behind-the-scenes coverage and access to the top players, coaches and management. For over a decade SKY has covered all aspects of rugby twelve months of the year, and this has resulted in extensive access to the All Blacks and other teams. The fact that we have a dedicated and professional reporting team on the ground in Paris shows our commitment to the code and the strength of our relationship and standing in the rugby world," said Mr Fellet.

John Fellet said that while he was happy the matter had been resolved and business could continue as usual, he was surprised that MediaWorks had widely debated the injunction through the media while the court was considering the case and wanted to set the record straight once and for all.

MediaWorks had lodged an injunction at the Auckland High Court on Wednesday 12 September alleging that SKY had used TV3's broadcasts in shows that MediaWorks had deemed 'magazine' style, in breach of the News Access Agreement signed between TV3, TVNZ and SKY, and outside "fair use" rights that exist under the Copyright Act. Fair use rights generally allow the use of up to 90 seconds of match footage for reporting news.

"We were very happy to agree to the News Access Agreement since, as TV3 clearly understood, that agreement never limited our rights to use footage outside "hard news" programmes for reporting current events. It is somewhat ironic that TV3 relied on compliance with the News Access Agreement when they continue to use SKY footage in breach of its requirements. Obviously we will be more vigilant about their compliance with this agreement in the future." Mr. Fellet commented.

SKY holds the New Zealand broadcast rights to the majority of sporting codes, including all SANZAR Rugby, all forms of Cricket, major Golf and Tennis, NRL, International Rugby League, Formula One, NASCAR, World Rally Championship, Netball, World Super Bikes, Moto GP, Soccer and more.

"Today's ruling is some kind of draw, with the judge making a ruling about half way between the positions of MediaWorks and SKY. The outcome can only strengthen the position of the New Zealand broadcast rights holder of any sports. We don't believe we have detracted any value whatsoever from TV3 since the Rugby World Cup started, however it looks like in the longer term we have won, one way or the other," Mr. Fellet concluded.

"MediaWorks claimed that TV3 would never use footage that they didn't have rights to other than under the News Access Agreement, however during their build up to the first All Blacks World Cup match on Saturday 9 September they blatantly used eight different unauthorised clips, all from games for which SKY is the right's holder," he said. The judge has cautioned MediaWorks against improper use of SKY's footage. Given MediaWorks approach in protecting TV3's Rugby World Cup broadcasts, we will now reciprocate by closely scrutinising MediaWorks' use of SKY's footage," he said.

"We disagree with MediaWorks claim that our use of TV3's broadcasts has affected TV3 viewership of the Rugby World Cup - if anything we think our use of TV3's broadcasts only whets the appetite of viewers to watch the games on TV3. Viewers are not stupid, they know they can only watch the games live on TV3 and that they can then access information as and when they need it on the various news updates we screen across our SKY Sports channels," Mr. Fellet said.

John Fellet said SKY's subscriber base had always grown during the Rugby World Cup because viewers knew SKY would offer in-depth and prime-time coverage of the aspects of the Cup that matter and that the network would continue to do so.

ENDS

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