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VGTV uses clips from Viaplay’s sports broadcasts. Viaplay doesn’t like it. In the fall, the media giants will meet in court.
Manchester United, Marcus Rashford. Here he applauds after scoring 1-2 against Paris Saint-Germain last fall.
GONZALO FUENTES / REUTERS
In Norway, Viaplay and TV 2 have the rights to show the Champions League. However, VGTV shows the goals of the matches on its broadcasts.
Viaplay’s owner, Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent), believes this is illegal. Therefore, they have sued VG and VGTV. The parties will meet at the Oslo District Court for four days at the end of August.
VGTV thinks they have something to say. They justify it in the so-called news court, which provides opportunities to send “short extracts of events of great public interest.”
– The news court is authorized by Norwegian law to ensure free broadcasting of news. It is very widespread among Norwegian broadcasters. Nent and we disagree on how the rule should be practiced, says Thomas Manus Hønningstad.
He is the CEO of VGTV.
Football and handball
Nent is a Scandinavian media group. In Norway, they own TV 3, Viaplay and the radio channel P4.
Viaplay has, among other things, the rights to the German Bundesliga and the Champions League in football. In addition, they have the European Championships, the World Cup and the Champions League for women’s and men’s handball.
When asked which clips from Viaplay VGTV he thinks are covered by the news court, Hønningstad responds:
– They can be goals from Champions, Norwegians in the Bundesliga, or other things that are of great interest.
Nent devours English football
Aftenposten / E24 has asked Nent which transmissions apply. They don’t want to say anything about it. The company also doesn’t want to say anything about how much they demand from VGTV.
– In December we sent a lawsuit against VG. The background is the use of clips from our sports broadcasts on their website, says Nicholas Smith.
He is responsible for external communication of the company.
– This is an ongoing case. Therefore, we do not want to comment further on the matter, says Smith.
In recent years, Nent has been very successful in the Norwegian sports market. Last year, they fled with the rights to the Premier League from 2022 to 2028. It should have cost them around NOK 25 billion, according to Dagens Næringsliv.
In 2019, the group had sales of SEK 15.6 billion.
Viaplay is owned by Swedish Nordic Entertainment Group.
Gorm Kallestad / NTB
Looks like a flaming TV 2 conflict
TV 2 was in a similar battle a few years ago.
The Norwegian Football Association, Norsk Toppfotball and Fotball Media sued the television channel for the use of Eliteserien clips, when Discovery sat down on rights.
TV 2 showed the goals of the matches in its own sports broadcasts. They also referred to the news court.
However, the conflict was resolved before the case reached court.
Note: Both VGTV and E24 are owned by VG. VG and Aftenposten are owned by Schibsted. In practice, the clips in question may be broadcast by Aftenposten in accordance with the newspaper’s collaboration with VG.
