Active Rights Management Limited : ARM in Action

With 25 years' experience across all sports around the world.. 12 metres Yachting World Championships – 5 Nations Rugby – All England Netball Association – Alpine Ski World Cup – Amateur Boxing Association of England – Americas Cup – Ascot Racecourse – Asian Basketball – Asian Football – Asian PGA – Australian Rules Football – Australian Soccer Federation – Australian Tennis Federation – Beijing Construction Company - Basketball Venue – Berlin Marathon – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. Bislett Track and Field Events – British American Racing – British Basketball League – British Equestrian Federation – British Grand Prix – British Horseracing Board – British Lions – British Supercross – Caltex Cup – Celtic Unions – Cricket World Cup – Davis Cup/Federation Cup/Youth Cup – DWA Motorsports – England and Wales Cricket Board – England National Football Team – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. European Athletic Championships – European Rugby Cup – European Tennis Association – FA Premier League – Federation Internatinale de Bobsleigh and Toboganning – Federation Internationale Automobiles – FIFA – FIM – Football Association – Football Association of Ireland – Football DataCo – Football Expo – Football League – Formula 1 Administration – German National Tennis Team – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. Hong Kong FA – IAAF World Series – Ice Skating Union – International Association of Professional Football Players' Unions – International Cricket Council – International Federation of Netball Association – International Hockey Federation – International Ice Hockey Federation – International Motor Sports Association – International Mountaineering Federation – International Roller-skating Federation – International Rowing Federation – International Sailing Federation – International Tennis Federation – International Water-ski Federation – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. International Weightlifting Federation – Irish Rugby Football Union – Judo World Championships – London Marathon – PGA Tour of Australiasia – Professional Footballers' Association – RFU – Richemont - Dunhill Cup – Roller Skating World Champions – Rome Marathon – Rugby World Cup – Rugby World Cup Sevens – Saracens – Scottish Open Golf Championships – Scottish Rugby Union – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. Six Nations – Soccer World Cup – South African Premier League – Super 12 Consortium – The Boat Race – Tour de France – UEFA – Volvo Around the World Race – Welsh Rugby Union – World Amateur Boxing Association – World Championship Athletics – World Cup Golf – World Cup Hockey – World Cycling Championships – World Derby – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. World Handball Championships – World Kick Boxing Championships – World Rally Championships – World Rowing Championships – World Snooker – World Squash Federation – World Table Tennis Championships

arm’s involvement with the Olympics began in 1999 with a study of the digital media rights. The vast majority of its income comes from television rights, sold on a territorial basis. You can offer exclusivity within that medium fairly easily. The issue with the internet, new media and digital rights is that it makes it very easy for content to be moved around and to pass outside the country boundaries.

The traditional way of looking at pictures, audio and photos was rapidly changing. The model was being challenged by the ability to collect data as to how an event was progressing and translate that into the equivalent of moving images. There was a real risk to the IOC and a need to understand exactly how that would affect the model and try to get it into the right perspective.

The first thing we identified was that the rules and regulations of the Olympic movement needed to be changed. This Charter said that the IOC owned all the pictures and audio-visual data. What it didn’t say was that it also owned the data: who was taking part, the result, the in-race data such as section timings in terms of the laps etc.

The press and media were using these different forms of data and because the data could then be used to create other products, it was really the life-blood of the Olympics. It needed to be protected. So, at our suggestion and in our wording, a change was made to the Olympic Charter to include data as part of the product of the Olympics. As part of this process, we introduced the concept of the ‘sports performance’.

There were different ways of recording the ‘sports performance’. They might be recorded in photographs, they might be recorded in moving images, or some one commentating, or indeed, by pure data. We saw that ‘sports performance’ and the ability to control its recording as being absolutely key to all sports. The Olympics was the first to recognize the concept and work on that basis.

An important element in the equation is recognizing how digital data can be translated – you can create an audio commentary from knowing which player is in which position on the field. You can collect that data by using sensors and from that you can generate an audio commentary. This was something that sport hadn’t really thought about before the new millennium and we were at the forefront of drawing this to rights owners’ attention.

You need to go back to basics of what you are protecting: this concept of the sports performance and that it could be recorded in a variety of different ways. You have to start from the first position that if you have a venue, you have a chance to control how that sports performance is recorded.

So you need to look at all your rules and regulations and contracts to make sure you’re protected. The problem is: if some one builds a business, if you allow them to come in and start running a business and you’re aware of it, you can’t then suddenly turn around and say: “Now we see you’re making loads of money, you’ve got to stop it or pay us some money.” They have legal rights because it’s something they’ve created. So we encourage sports rights owners to have a better structure for how they control events in the first place.