This question came to me the other day, and it took me a while to figure out the right way to answer it on this blog. The first thing I needed to do was write a title for this article, and that was one of the hardest parts! Here are some of the other ones I thought of:
- Why does a bar owner pay more to show baseball than a person at home?
- Why can’t you stream movies at at bar or restaurant?
- Why can you watch MLB.TV on your phone in a bar, but they can’t put MLB.TV up on the bar TVs?
- Why is sports programming treated differently in bars than other kinds of programs?
These all might seem like different questions, but they’re not. Why? Because the answer to all of them is really the same. It comes down to some basic parts of the law that haven’t quite caught up with technology. There’s also a healthy dose of the “because we can” mentality from sports team owners, and I’ll explain that too.
The difference between home viewing and public viewing
When it comes to any sort of media whether it’s streaming, TV, radio, or even physical media, the laws treat home or personal use differently from business use. It boils down to the idea of “fair use.” If it weren’t for “fair use” you probably couldn’t legally watch anything at home ever. Here’s why.
Copyright law says that any time there’s a “performance” of something, whether that’s performed live, broadcast, or streamed, the owner of that performance has the right to ask for money. This is a good thing. We have some of the greatest visual art forms ever created because people were able to profit from them. Do you think that Taylor Swift could afford to distribute all those songs and play all those tours if she didn’t get paid for them? Sure, these days people do YouTubes and TikToks without getting paid up front, but even those can have commercials that pay the creator.
So where does that leave you if you just want to watch something at home? Obviously you’re not paying Taylor Swift every time you say “never ever ever getting back together” out loud. You’re not paying her if you just watch a commercial for her tour. This sort of thing falls under the umbrella of what’s called “fair use.” Fair use means that you’re not intending to make a profit, you’re just enjoying the stuff personally. Fair use can also apply to things like schoolteachers using Taylor Swift songs to teach… um… well I’m not sure what they would teach using those songs but you get the point.
Here’s the thing: Fair use doesn’t apply to businesses but it does apply to you while you’re in them
You can watch anything you want at home. You can watch anything you want on your phone. But, a business owner can’t do that. According to copyright law, if they put it on their TVs, it’s classified as a “public performance.” From the point of view of the law it’s totally different. Public performances are designed to make someone (the bar owner) money. The bar owner charges for drinks, you might choose that bar specifically because of what’s on their TVs.
If it’s a public performance, the person who holds the copyright can choose to collect more money based on how many people could see that performance. Note that I said “choose.” That’s important because broadcasters like ABC/Disney/ESPN don’t choose to ask for more money like that from bar owners. Leagues like the NFL and MLB do. And that’s the real core of the answer.
Why sports programming is treated differently
If you have satellite TV for your bar, you know that it’s really about the same price as having satellite TV for home. That is, until you want to show NFL Sunday Ticket or that sort of package. Then, you’re charged according to the “fire code occupancy” of your bar. That means not the number of people who are actually in your bar, but the maximum number of people who could fit legally. The bigger your bar, the more you pay.
If the game is on CBS and you have satellite TV, you pay one price. But if that same game is on NFL Sunday Ticket then the league is getting even more money for it. They’re getting money from the local broadcaster who’s actually making the show. They’re getting money from DIRECTV who is bundling it with other football games. And, they’re getting even more money from you the bar owner on top of everything else.
Yes, this is legal. Absolutely 100%. And if you have a bar and want to show sports on your TVs, you’re gonna pay it. Because no matter what the fee is for something like NFL Sunday Ticket, you know it’s going to pay for itself. More sports brings in more people. It’s proven, and you know it.
The issue with streaming
From a technical point of view, there’s nothing stopping streaming apps from being used in bars or restaurants. But it’s not legal to do, because streaming companies don’t collect those extra copyright fees. They just don’t. They’re not set up for it. This means every time you see a streaming app being used in a business, it’s illegal. Sooner or later that business is going to get caught because it’s so easy to trace internet traffic to a specific location.
Or maybe, the streaming companies will start working on how to offer their services to businesses. Like I said there’s nothing actually stopping them. Sooner or later someone like Google is going to get hip to how much money they could actually be making, and do something about it. But that day isn’t today.
So it comes down to “fair use” again. Fair use says you can stream anything you want on your personal device. But the business owner can’t do that without a contract that lets them do it.
Should all this stuff change? Should the laws get fixed?
I’ve said before that copyright law in this country is way behind the times. It’s ridiculous that some stuff is copyrighted for about 100 years. Copyright law also doesn’t really address the state of the internet today and how people distribute stuff. Technically if a TikTok has someone else’s music under it, that’s a copyright violation. But it’s not ever treated like that because most everyone agrees that’s stupid.
I’m not going to say that copyright reform is the biggest problem we as a nation face, but it’s something. And that’s all I’ll say, because this isn’t a political blog. I will say that if you like sports programming and you want it in your business, you need to work with an expert. You need to do it right. There are packages for you where you’ll pay very little. And, there are some where you will pay a lot. If you choose the wrong one you could end up in a lot of hot water.
Call the folks at Signal Connect at 888-233-7563 and get the right advice on how to bring great sports programming into your business. We’re here during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below. We’ll get right back to you!
