Football leagues such as the Premier League and Bundesliga won a reprieve on Friday when European Union ambassadors "agreed to exclude them from the scope of a copyright reform that would help make content more easily available online," according to Julia Fioretti of REUTERS. The entertainment and sports industries have been "fiercely lobbying" against the European Commission’s proposed reform of EU copyright law to make films and TV programs more available across borders, arguing "it would undermine the financing model of the whole sector." The commission said that it is "not seeking to force anyone to make content more available online, but merely to make it easier for broadcasters to obtain the necessary rights." EU member states agreed on Friday to exclude all sports events, TV programs co-produced by broadcasters and other third parties and content licensed to a broadcaster by a third party. That means that "only content produced and financed entirely by the broadcaster will be able to be shown online across the EU after the rights are obtained in the home country." The agreement is "not final" and means EU member states can enter into negotiations with the European Parliament to "strike a final deal" (REUTERS, 12/15).
