Introduction

Sports broadcasting in India has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry, with television networks, OTT platforms, digital publishers and sports organisations competing for valuable media rights. Cricket, in particular, has demonstrated how the right to broadcast a sporting event can become one of the most commercially significant assets associated with the event.

But an important legal question arises: Who actually owns the right to show a sporting event in India?

Does a sports federation own the game itself? Does the broadcaster own the match once it acquires media rights? Or does copyright protect only the particular broadcast created through cameras, commentary, graphics and production?

The answer lies in distinguishing between rights in the sporting event, contractual broadcast rights, and broadcast reproduction rights under the Copyright Act, 1957.

What Are Sports Broadcasting Rights in India?

A sporting event is not necessarily protected as a copyright work in the same way as a film, book or musical composition. However, the broadcast of that event receives separate statutory protection under Indian copyright law.

Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957 grants a broadcasting organisation a special “broadcast reproduction right” in respect of its broadcasts. This right generally continues for 25 years from the beginning of the calendar year following the year in which the broadcast is made.

The provision protects broadcasters against unauthorised acts such as:

• Re-broadcasting the broadcast;
• Causing the broadcast to be seen or heard by the public for payment;
• Making unauthorised sound or visual recordings;
• Reproducing unauthorised recordings; and
• Commercially selling or renting such recordings.

Therefore, Indian copyright law does not necessarily give a broadcaster ownership of the sport itself. Instead, it gives the broadcaster a statutory right in relation to the broadcast that it creates and transmits.

Who Owns the Right to Broadcast a Sporting Event?

To understand sports broadcasting law in India, it is useful to separate three different layers of rights.

1. Rights of the Event Organiser

Sports federations and event organisers, such as the BCCI, control the organisation and commercial exploitation of sporting events through their contractual and organisational arrangements.

The Supreme Court's decision in Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting v. Cricket Association of Bengal recognised that organisers of sporting events have the ability to commercially exploit telecasting rights and choose appropriate methods for generating revenue from broadcasting.

This means that an organiser can enter into agreements granting television, digital, mobile, audio or other media rights.

However, saying that an organiser has commercial rights over an event is not necessarily the same as saying that the organiser owns a copyright in the underlying facts of the game.

2. Contractual Broadcast Rights

The organiser may grant exclusive media rights to a broadcaster through a licensing or rights agreement.

For example, a sports organisation may divide rights into:

• Television rights;
• Digital or OTT rights;
• Mobile rights;
• Audio rights;
• Radio rights;
• Highlight rights;
• Clip rights; and
• International broadcasting rights.

These rights are primarily governed by the contract between the organiser and the broadcaster.

Consequently, the broadcaster's ability to show a match may arise from a contractual licence, while its protection against unauthorised reproduction of its actual broadcast may arise separately under Section 37 of the Copyright Act.

3. Copyright and Broadcast Reproduction Rights

The third layer concerns the actual audiovisual broadcast.

Camera angles, commentary, graphics, production elements and the audiovisual recording can attract copyright protection, while the broadcast itself receives the separate statutory protection under Section 37.

The Copyright Office explains that broadcasters have rights including the right to re-broadcast, cause the broadcast to be seen or heard by the public on payment, and make sound or visual recordings of the broadcast.

This distinction is critical when analysing sports piracy.

Does Copyright Protect the Game Itself?

Generally, copyright should not be confused with ownership of the underlying sporting facts.

A cricket match produces facts: the score, wickets, players, overs, result and other information generated during the game. Those facts are different from the creative audiovisual expression used to communicate them.

This distinction was considered extensively by the Delhi High Court in Star India Pvt. Ltd. v. Piyush Agarwal & Ors.

The dispute concerned live scores, match updates and alerts arising from cricket matches organised by the BCCI. The court examined whether the organiser and its assignee could claim exclusive proprietary rights over information generated by a cricket match.

The judgment highlighted the important distinction between information arising from a sporting event and the copyright-protected broadcast of that event.

Therefore, a person reporting that a particular team scored 180 runs or that a player took five wickets is not automatically reproducing the broadcaster's audiovisual content merely by communicating those facts.

However, the legal position can become more complicated where the information is obtained, reproduced or commercially exploited in a manner that interferes with contractual rights or other legally protected interests.

Key Indian Case Laws on Sports Broadcasting

1. Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting v. Cricket Association of Bengal

This Supreme Court decision is important in understanding the relationship between sports organisers, broadcasting and public access.

The decision recognised the commercial significance of broadcasting rights and observed that organisers have a right to sell telecasting rights and select commercially advantageous methods of broadcasting an event.

The case therefore provides an important foundation for understanding why sports organisations can commercially license broadcasting opportunities.

2. ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd. v. Tudu Enterprise

In ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd. v. Tudu Enterprise, the Delhi High Court dealt with unauthorised dissemination of a cricket broadcast during the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The plaintiff claimed exclusive rights to televise the tournament in India and sought protection against unauthorised cable operators. The case involved Section 37 of the Copyright Act and the broadcaster's exclusive rights in relation to its broadcast.

The case demonstrates the practical importance of broadcast reproduction rights in preventing unauthorised retransmission of live sports broadcasts.

3. Star India Pvt. Ltd. v. Piyush Agarwal

This case is particularly relevant to the distinction between facts and broadcast content.

Star India and the BCCI sought to restrict commercial dissemination of live scores, updates and alerts. The dispute required the court to consider whether match information itself could be treated as proprietary information capable of exclusive commercial exploitation.

The judgment considered public interest, freedom of information, contractual arrangements and the distinction between the broadcast and information arising from the match.

The case is therefore important for understanding why copyright in a broadcast does not automatically mean copyright over every fact generated by the sporting event.

IPL Media Rights: A Practical Example

The Indian Premier League provides one of the clearest examples of the commercial separation of sports media rights.

The BCCI has historically structured IPL media rights into different categories, allowing different rights packages to be commercially licensed.

The broader principle is straightforward:

The organiser controls the commercial rights it is entitled to license, while the broadcaster receives specific rights under its agreement and statutory protection over its broadcast.

This model allows television and digital platforms to compete for different packages and demonstrates why “owning the IPL” and “owning the copyright in a particular IPL broadcast” are not necessarily the same legal proposition.

Sports Broadcasting and Digital Streaming

The rapid growth of OTT platforms has significantly changed sports broadcasting in India.

A viewer may now watch the same sporting event through:

• Television;
• Mobile applications;
• Websites;
• Smart TVs;
• Streaming platforms; and
• Other digital services.

This expansion has also created new forms of infringement. Rogue websites can capture and retransmit live sports signals, often while the event is still taking place.

For live sports, timing is particularly important. A pirated stream may lose much of its commercial value once the match has ended, meaning that traditional litigation after the event may not provide an effective remedy.

Dynamic Injunctions and Sports Piracy in India

Indian courts have increasingly used dynamic injunctions to address online sports piracy.

The Delhi High Court has granted injunctions covering not only identified rogue websites but, in appropriate circumstances, mirror websites, redirect websites and other emerging domains connected with the infringement.

For example, in 2024, the Delhi High Court granted relief concerning unauthorised streaming of IPL events and recognised the need for swift protection because of the short duration and commercial value of live matches.

Similar approaches have been used in cases involving ICC cricket events and other live sporting content.

Dynamic injunctions therefore attempt to prevent rights holders from having to start a completely new legal battle every time an infringing website changes its domain name.

Fair Dealing and Sports Highlights

Another important issue is the use of sports footage for news reporting, commentary, criticism, education and other potentially permitted purposes.

Section 39 of the Copyright Act provides that the broadcast reproduction right is not infringed by certain uses, including fair dealing with excerpts of a broadcast for reporting current events or for bona fide review, teaching or research, subject to the statutory requirements.

This creates an important distinction between:

Reporting the match
and
Commercially reproducing or retransmitting the broadcast.

A short excerpt used for legitimate reporting may raise different legal questions from a platform that systematically reproduces live footage to attract viewers and advertising revenue.

The precise legality of any particular use depends on the facts, the purpose of the use, the amount of material reproduced and the applicable statutory and contractual rights.

AI-Generated Sports Clips: The Next Copyright Challenge

Artificial intelligence is creating a new challenge for sports broadcasting.

AI systems can automatically identify wickets, goals, boundaries, controversial decisions and other important moments and create short clips almost immediately.

This raises difficult questions:

• Can AI-generated highlights reproduce protected broadcast footage?
• Does shortening a clip make it legally permissible?
• Who owns an AI-generated compilation?
• Can a platform commercially distribute real-time highlights without a licence?
• When does legitimate reporting become unauthorised exploitation?

These questions are becoming increasingly important because the commercial value of sports broadcasting is concentrated in real time.

A 15-second clip uploaded seconds after a major sporting moment can compete directly with the broadcaster's licensed digital content.

Indian copyright law already provides a framework for broadcast protection and fair dealing, but the application of these principles to automated, real-time AI clipping is an emerging legal issue.


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India vs. the United States and United Kingdom

Sports broadcasting rights are treated differently across jurisdictions.

In the United States, the discussion around sports information has historically included the “hot news” misappropriation doctrine, although its scope and application are distinct from ordinary copyright protection.

The United Kingdom has developed a strong framework involving copyright, contractual rights and the commercial licensing of sports broadcasts. The QC Leisure litigation involving Premier League broadcasts is frequently discussed in this context.

India, however, primarily approaches broadcast protection through the Copyright Act, contractual arrangements and judicial remedies, rather than treating the sporting event itself as an ordinary copyrighted work.

This makes the distinction between event rights, contractual rights and broadcast reproduction rights especially important in the Indian context.

Conclusion

Sports broadcasting law in India sits at the intersection of copyright, contracts, commercial rights, technology and public interest.

The sporting event itself is not simply equivalent to a copyrighted film. Instead, the legal framework separates the organiser's commercial rights from the broadcaster's rights in the actual broadcast.

Section 37 of the Copyright Act provides broadcasting organisations with a specific broadcast reproduction right for 25 years, while contractual arrangements determine who is authorised to exploit particular television, digital, mobile or other media rights.

Indian courts have also recognised the need to balance commercial exclusivity with public access to factual information arising from sporting events. At the same time, the growth of rogue streaming websites has encouraged courts to develop faster and more flexible remedies, including dynamic injunctions.

The next major challenge will be AI-powered real-time sports content. As automated systems increasingly create instant highlights and clips, Indian copyright law will have to determine where legitimate reporting ends and unauthorised exploitation of valuable broadcast content begins.

Ultimately, the better question is not simply “Who owns the game?” but:

Who owns or controls each legally distinct right associated with the game, and what exactly is being reproduced or communicated to the public?

That distinction is at the heart of copyright and sports broadcasting law in India.