Copyright in broadcast material

Copyright can subsist in either terrestrial or satellite broadcasts. Most broadcasters act for themselves in respect of their copyright. The main exception is with reference to educational recording off-air by educational establishements.

If you wish to use broadcast material that falls within the scope of the economic rights but not one of the exceptions to copyright, in some cases a licence may be offered by a collective licensing body:

• The Educational Recording Agency licences the recording off-air by educational establishments for non-commercial educational purposes of much broadcast material
• Open University Worldwide licences the recording off-air by educational establishments for non-commercial educational purposes of Open University programmes.

In other cases you will need to approach the right broadcaster for permission to use the material.

You should note that you will usually need to get permission from the owners of copyright in the content of a broadcast as well as the broadcast itself, for example content such as music, films, sound recordings, literary works and so on, although the broadcaster should be able to tell you whether this is necessary.

Before seeking a licence, though, you might wish to see if your use falls within one of the exceptions, in particular:

• the private use exception covering time-shifting,
• the exception covering fair dealing for reporting current events or
• the exception applying to playing or showing in public broadcasts which may include music or film.