All hospitality providers intending to organize public viewing of matches from the World Cup in football must obtain a license from the International Football Organization, FIFA, reports Vjesnik.hr.
The fee is a ‘special’ 1,000 euros. However, the price of the license ranges from 1,000 to 14,000 euros, depending on the capacity of the venue. FIFA decided on this move to protect media rights. It is the responsibility of hospitality providers to submit requests to HRT as the owner of the media rights license for broadcasting World Cup matches, but it is clear that such a model will still be ‘stretchable’ in practice. It is confusing, however, how FIFA distinguishes between commercial and non-commercial public broadcasting. The first category includes venues whose owners charge admission during the television broadcast of the match. Others do not have to pay anything, but – must obtain a license. This would mean that most of our hospitality providers, who, of course, do not charge admission in cafes and restaurants, must go through the procedure of obtaining that permit. However, it is possible that they could also fall into the category of commercial content if the relevant monitoring agencies notice an increase in visits to a venue during the broadcast of the World Cup match. It is hard to believe that such a thing will come to fruition in practice. (www.vjesnik.hr)
