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Sports Rights Owners' Coalition

SROC

The Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC) represents international sports bodies on legal and regulatory issues.

Lobbying Activity

Sports bodies urge EU to update major event listing rules

21 Dec 2025
Topic — Evaluation of EU rules governing audiovisual media services, competitiveness, and cultural diversity.
Message — SROC suggests rules should reflect wider societal access to content through modern platforms. They request protection for owners to legitimately exploit and maximize benefits from competitions.12
Why — Removing restrictions would prevent the value of media rights from being artificially depressed.3
Impact — Traditional free-to-air viewers might lose guaranteed access to major sporting events for free.4
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Response to A strategic vision for sport in Europe: reinforcing the European sport model

8 Dec 2025

The Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC), representing over 50 international and national sports bodies and competition organisers, welcomes the European Commissions initiative to reinforce and future-proof the European Sports Model. Sport is a vital part of European cultural identity, social cohesion, and economic life. The European sports sector generates over 2% of the EUs GDP and nearly 3% of employment, with SROC members being significant contributors and investors across the continent. Sustainable financing for both elite and grassroots sport depends heavily on revenues from broadcast and media rights, which are reinvested to support the growth and inclusivity of sport at every level. The European Sports Model is essential for fostering a fair, inclusive, and sustainable sports environment across Europe, grounded in values such as openness of competition, transparency, and solidarity. It drives social cohesion, health and economic growth. Crucially, this model relies on a pyramid structure where revenues generated at the elite level, primarily from top-tier sports rights, are redistributed down to grassroots and community sports, supporting broad participation and development. To sustain this model, it is imperative to ensure robust financial flows at the top level of sport. In this regard, combating online piracy is vital. Illegal live streaming and content piracy cause substantial revenue losses that undermine the financial base supporting the entire sports ecosystem. Legislative action beyond voluntary recommendations is necessary to protect the intellectual property and revenues of sports rights owners, ensuring the sustainability and legal integrity of the sector. Effective anti-piracy measures help preserve the value necessary to reinvest in sports future. Also, maintaining the current exceptions within the Geoblocking Regulation is key. Territorial licensing enables sports rights owners to effectively tailor content to local markets, reflecting the diverse preferences of fans and media partners across Europe. Due to the nature of distinct national and local tastes across different territories, this approach ensures a focus on a wide variety of sports and competitions, enabling reinvestment at all levels of sport. If de-facto pan-European licensing through the removal of the ability to geo-enable content were enforced, smaller leagues, clubs, and territories would see revenues shrink, reducing their ability to reinvest in grassroots and community sports. Additionally, requiring sports betting operators to exclusively use official data sets licensed from competition organisers for the settling of bets would ensure stronger protection for European consumers. This would guarantee the integrity of legitimate betting markets as only a single data source could be referenced, ensuring all bets would be paid out on the same terms. This would further support the intrinsic values of the European Sports Model and could bring further investment into sport at all levels. The future of the European Sports Model depends on maintaining strong financial foundations at the elite level, enabling ongoing investment in all layers of the sporting pyramid. By defending these pillars: anti-piracy, territorial licensing and official betting data, the EU can safeguard a model that has proven its ability to foster unity, social and economic wellbeing, and fair competition. Ongoing policy focus on these issues will help preserve Europes rich sporting legacy and secure its benefits for future generations.
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Sports rights owners demand EU ban on piracy promotion

24 Oct 2025
Topic — The consultation evaluates European consumer protection rules against unfair and addictive digital practices.
Message — SROC requests a prohibition on advertising piracy tools and dark patterns that trick consumers into using illegal streams. They further demand tougher EU regulations to stop ticket touting on secondary marketplaces.123
Why — Restricting piracy and touting helps secure the commercial value of sporting events and broadcasting rights.45
Impact — Secondary ticket traders and illegal IPTV operators would lose significant profits from unauthorized sales.67
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Meeting with Giorgio Guazzugli Marini (Head of Unit Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)

29 Sept 2025 · Exchange of views on piracy of sport events

SROC Urges EU to Protect Territorial Sports Media Rights

29 Aug 2025
Topic — The EU strategy aims to strengthen enforcement of consumer protection legislation through 2030.
Message — SROC demands the EU maintain territorial exclusivity for sports media licensing. They also seek legislation against live piracy and influencer marketing of illegal streams.12
Why — Maintaining territorial licensing protects revenues used to fund grassroots and community sports development.3
Impact — Consumers across Europe would face higher prices set by the most valuable markets.4
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Sports Rights Owners Coalition Rejects Network Fees, Demands IP Protection

10 Jul 2025
Topic — The European Union is consulting on improving infrastructure for secure high-speed broadband.
Message — SROC strongly rejects any proposal for additional fees levied on content creators. They urge the EU to respect net neutrality and implement harmonized IP protection. These measures help protect revenues for professional and grass-roots sports.123
Why — Avoiding new levies preserves financial resources for reinvestment in the sports sector.4
Impact — Telecom operators lose a potential revenue stream intended to fund network infrastructure.5
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Sports Rights Owners Coalition Demands EU Legislation Against Piracy

4 Jun 2025
Topic — Review of EU measures to combat unauthorized online retransmissions of live sports events.
Message — The coalition requests new legislation forcing internet intermediaries to remove illegal live content immediately upon receiving a notice. They argue that the current non-binding recommendations are failing because most notices do not result in the suspension of illegal broadcasts.12
Why — Mandatory takedown rules would protect their media revenue and reduce the high costs of reporting piracy.34
Impact — Server providers and hosting services would face stricter, legally enforceable obligations to act within minutes.56
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Meeting with Agata Dziarnowska (Cabinet of Commissioner Glenn Micallef)

21 Mar 2025 · Introductory meeting

Meeting with Egelyn Braun (Cabinet of Commissioner Michael McGrath)

20 Mar 2025 · Exchange of views on consumer protection

Meeting with Hannes Heide (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and NOVE and

18 Mar 2025 · Stakeholder dialogue on The role of EU policies in shaping the European Sport Model

Meeting with Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and NOVE and

18 Mar 2025 · Stakeholder dialogue on The role of EU policies in shaping the European Sport Model

Sports Rights Owners demand continued audiovisual exclusion from geo-blocking rules

11 Mar 2025
Topic — Evaluation of EU rules against consumer discrimination based on nationality or residence.
Message — SROC demands that audiovisual services remain excluded from the Geo-blocking Regulation. They argue territorial licensing is vital for providing culturally specific content and maintaining sustainable business models.12
Why — This allows rights owners to maintain profitable territorial licensing and avoid costly infrastructure mandates.3
Impact — Expatriates lose access to home-country content because providers would stop offering these niche services.4
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Meeting with Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Feb 2025 · Illegal Piracy of Live Sport

Meeting with Miron Podgorean (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)

17 Feb 2025 · Sport rights owners’ coalition

Meeting with Hristo Petrov (Member of the European Parliament)

17 Feb 2025 · Introductory Meeting

Meeting with Laurence Farreng (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Dec 2024 · Modèle sportif européen et droits sportifs

Meeting with Nikolina Brnjac (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Dec 2024 · Sports Piracy in the EU

Meeting with Sandro Gozi (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Dec 2024 · Sports in Europe

Meeting with Hannes Heide (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Dec 2024 · Exchange of views on sport and media policy

Meeting with Pierfrancesco Maran (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Sept 2024 · Geo-blocking

Meeting with Sandro Ruotolo (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Sept 2024 · 2024-2029 priorities for sports rights owners

Meeting with Nikola Minchev (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Sept 2024 · Congratulations and best wishes for your new mandate

Sports rights owners reject network fees for content creators

27 Jun 2024
Topic — Commission initiative addressing Europe's future connectivity rollout and digital infrastructure needs.
Message — The group rejects additional fees for content creators and supports net neutrality principles. They propose tackling piracy to free up existing network capacity.12
Why — Avoiding new fees protects revenue that sustains professional and grassroots sports activities.3
Impact — Network fees would harm the cultural sector and lead to negative effects for consumers.4
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Meeting with Marie Frenay (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová) and EBU-UER (European Broadcasting Union) and

5 Feb 2024 · Future of connectivity

Sports Rights Owners Coalition urges specific label for sports piracy

24 Jan 2024
Topic — The European Commission is setting mandatory templates for content moderation transparency reports.
Message — SROC proposes that illicit retransmissions of sports events are listed in subcategory 5g and labelled as Sports content. This classification would help isolate sports content and facilitate the effective use of transparency reports.12
Why — This classification allows rights holders to better track piracy trends and monitor anti-piracy effectiveness.3
Impact — Operators of illegal streaming services would face more transparent reporting and targeted enforcement.4
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Sports bodies demand real-time takedown tools for illegal streams

9 Feb 2023
Topic — A European Commission initiative to provide a toolbox against illegal streaming of live events.
Message — Rights owners demand real-time takedown tools and immediate removal of flagged infringements during live events. They also seek EU-wide availability of injunctions for IP blocking and a commitment to future legislative action if recommendations fail.123
Why — These measures protect the commercial value of broadcasting rights by preventing near-instant revenue loss from piracy.4
Impact — Illegal streaming platforms and non-compliant online intermediaries would face immediate content removal and access blocking.5
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Meeting with Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

16 Dec 2021 · Data Act

Meeting with Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager) and Groupement Européen des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs and

15 Feb 2021 · Presentation of a study on the economic and social importance of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), Copyright Directive, DSA, DMA

Meeting with Alina-Stefania Ujupan (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager), Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager) and

27 Jan 2021 · Main challenges and priorities for Cultural and Creative Industries to overcome the crisis and allow for the sector to help rebuilding the European economy at large

Sports Rights Owners demand instant tools against piracy

31 Aug 2020
Topic — The consultation explores ways to upgrade and enforce intellectual property rights in the EU.
Message — SROC requests near-instant tools to block illegal live streams. They want 'expeditious' removal defined as thirty minutes. They seek cross-border enforcement and identification of online suppliers.1234
Why — This would secure the main source of income for European sports.5
Impact — Anonymous platforms and pirate sites would face mandatory identification and faster shutdowns.6
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Meeting with Agnieszka Skonieczna (Cabinet of Commissioner Thierry Breton) and Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe and

24 Aug 2020 · Impact of COVID-19 and recovery measures for the media and audiovisual ecosystem

Response to Digital Services Act: deepening the Internal Market and clarifying responsibilities for digital services

30 Jun 2020

In its September 2017 Communication on Tackling Illegal Content Online , the European Commission (EC) acknowledged that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online”, which we welcome. The EC underlining that the rule of law also applies and should be respected online was a very positive step forward. The clarifications about the scope and the interpretation of the Article 14 of the E-Commerce Directive were also very useful. As acknowledged by the EC in its 2011 Communication on the European Dimension of Sport , our ecosystem is highly dependent on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for investment, in both professional and amateur competitions. Sports would struggle without direct investment in grassroots competitions from commercially successful rights owners. In many European countries, investment in grassroots sport is directly and proportionately dependent upon the value of sports rights. Therefore, the securing of media rights is fundamental to sustainable grassroots sport and its contribution to the social wellbeing and health of European citizens. SROC members find it particularly difficult to address digital piracy of live sports broadcasts due to the requirement of an immediate reaction needed to shut down the illegal streams. The value of our events is almost entirely in their live broadcast, so time is of the essence, and we need near-instant tools to remove or block illegal content. We do not face the same challenges as some other sectors in terms of interpreting what is legal or not. Our content is usually finger-printed / watermarked and/or we are able to provide a clear and easy-to-use list of our licensees. We are happy to provide the EC with some concrete information about the number of infringements of our content. Taking a sample of only 3 SROC members (two large football competitions and one motor sport competition) we reached almost 300 000 notices sent over the season 2016-17. Unfortunately, the situation has deteriorated further: during the 2018-19 season, we sent more than 1 million notices. More importantly, the percentage of removals of the infringing content within 30 min (which for us is not ideal but tolerable) varies from 30% to 50%. Finally, it is worth highlighting that for those 3 SROC members, the rate of challenged notices is less than 0.002%. Clearly, there is a growing issue both in terms of number of infringements and time of removal. Therefore, our members call on the EC to follow the option 2 and to propose “a more comprehensive legal intervention, updating and modernising the rules of the e-Commerce Directive, while preserving its main principles”. Our members feel that the distinction between active and passive intermediaries is still very relevant. Active intermediaries are liable, and we are therefore able to take action against them. The situation is much more complex with passive intermediaries and we would therefore suggest two sets of measures to better equip rights owners in their never ending battle to enforce their IPR. : (1) a clarification of some already existing EU law provisions and (2) an obligation to provide a real-time take-down tool on two types of passive intermediaries: Streaming Platforms (including those covered by article 17 of the Copyright Directive) and Dedicated Server Providers (DSPs).
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Response to Measures to further improve the effectiveness of the fight against illegal content online

30 Mar 2018

You will find attached the Sports Rights Owners' response to the Impact Assessment.
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Meeting with Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

14 Mar 2017 · Digital Single Market

Meeting with Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

21 Jun 2016 · Digital Single Market

Meeting with Andrus Ansip (Vice-President) and

3 May 2016 · Digital Single Market and Sport Broadcasting

Meeting with Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

19 Apr 2016 · Digital Single Market agenda

Meeting with Pauline Rouch (Cabinet of President Jean-Claude Juncker), Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics), Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

15 Mar 2016 · Digital Single Market

Meeting with Tibor Navracsics (Commissioner) and EBU-UER (European Broadcasting Union) and

26 Nov 2015 · Digital Single Market

Meeting with Andrus Ansip (Vice-President) and

26 Nov 2015 · Copyright reform, portability, fight against piracy

Meeting with Stig Joergen Gren (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)

27 Jan 2015 · Digital Single Market, copyright

Meeting with Pauline Rouch (Cabinet of President Jean-Claude Juncker)

27 Jan 2015 · Digital Single Market

Meeting with Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

27 Jan 2015 · Regulation of broadcasting rights