The speakers of the panel “Arena Rights and Broadcast Rights” of ABPI’s 40th International Congress on Intellectual Property, Andrei Kampff, from GFSA Sociedade de Advogados, and Wladimyr Camargos, from Accioly, Mendonça and Camargos Advogados agreed that Brazil needs to better discuss the new sports legislation. The panel was mediated by ABPI director Paulo Parente. They also addressed the MP (Provisional Measure) 984/2020, which changed the rules for broadcasting soccer matches. The MP lost its validity because it was not appreciated by deputies and senators within the deadline.
With the expiry of MP 984/2020, new Draft Bills addressing the topic emerged. Bill 4889/20 establishes that, from 2022, the championships of series A and B of Brazilian soccer will be organized by a league created by the teams. Today the organization is made by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). Bill 4876/2020 determines that the right to negotiate the game belongs exclusively to the team with home advantage, even when playing at neutral sites (i.e. not at their home court/field).
For Kampff, MP 984/2020 came at a bad time, hindered business, and brought great insecurity in the sports environment, but it had the merit of bringing up the discussion about broadcast rights and other topics in the world of soccer. “This discussion is very important for the soccer industry”. According to him, last year soccer generated a turnover of around R$ 6.8 billion, of which R$ 1.9 billion was related to TV rights. “The change in our law has to deal with broadcast rights systemically”, he said. “The best way is to hand over the rights to the team with home advantage, but this needs to be better discussed by the interested parties”.
For Camargos, the legal definition of the broadcasting right is out of date in the current Law and does not address all sports. He said that “this definition has become very soccer-related”, recalling that there are other sporting events interested in the issue. For him, the updating of the legislation is also justified by the increase of competition, with the entry of new stakeholders and streaming applications, which removed the monopoly of broadcasting from open TVs. Camargos argued that the General Sports Law, which is being processed in the Senate, should change the definition of broadcasting rights. “It is good to have a real and necessary discussion on this topic”.
If you are an ABPI member and registered for the Congress, you can review this Panel at any time. Just access the link: https://congresso.abpi.org.br/dia-20-painel-3-direitos-de-arena-e-direitos-de-transmissao/
