Increasingly, online content services are marketed in a package in which content which is not protected by copyright and/or related rights is not separable from content which is protected by copyright and/or related rights without substantially lessening the value of the service provided to consumers.
This is especially the case with premium content such as sporting or other events of significant interest to consumers. In order to enable service providers to deliver to consumers, when the latter are temporarily in a Member State other than their Member State of residence, full access to their online content services, it is indispensable that this Regulation also covers such content used by online content services and therefore that it applies to audiovisual media services in the meaning of Directive 2010/13/EU as well as to transmissions of broadcasting organisations in their entirety.
Therefore, providers of online content services that make use of works or other protected subject-matter, such as books, audiovisual works, recorded music or broadcasts must have the rights to use such content for the relevant territories. The transmission by the online service provider of content that is protected by copyright and related rights requires the authorisation of the relevant right holders such as authors, performers, producers or broadcasting organisations for the content that would be included in the transmission. This is equally true when such transmission takes place for the purpose of allowing a consumer to carry out a download in order to use an online content service.
The acquisition of a licence for the relevant rights is not always possible, notably when rights in content are licenced on an exclusive basis. In order to ensure the territorial exclusivity, online service providers often undertake, in their licence contracts with right holders, including broadcasting organisations or events organisers, to prevent their subscribers from accessing and using their service outside the territory for which the service provider holds the licence. These contractual restrictions imposed on service providers require providers to take measures such as disallowing access to their services from IP addresses located outside the territory concerned. Therefore, one of the obstacles to the cross-border portability of online content services is to be found in the contracts concluded between the online service providers and their subscribers, which in turn reflect the territorial restriction clauses included in contracts concluded between those service providers and right holders.