Public catering facilities must ensure that when they sign a contract with operators, that contract covers the "HoReCa" system, i.e., hotels, restaurants, cafes, and other public catering venues.
Taleh Guliyev, head of the Communication sector of the Audiovisual Council, stated this in response to an APA inquiry.
According to him, if an operator retransmits any television channel and has acquired the rights in this direction, this usually applies to end-users (subscribers).
"Retransmission in public catering facilities is regulated by a separate contract. Here, the responsibility should be borne not by the public catering facility, but by the operator providing the retransmission service to it, because when a contract is signed, the operator must sign a contract with that catering facility that is appropriate to the nature of that facility," Taleh Guliyev said, commenting on the broadcasting of the FIFA Club World Cup via pirate broadcasts in public catering facilities.
The official of the Audiovisual Council noted that the broadcasting of the FIFA Club World Cup in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan was carried out by broadcasters who had acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights for that championship. Thus, the broadcasting of this championship in public catering facilities could be retransmitted by the operator in accordance with a contract concluded between that public catering facility and a platform operator licensed by the Audiovisual Council: "If any public catering facility organizes the retransmission service itself without signing a contract with a platform operator not licensed by the Audiovisual Council, in this case, the Audiovisual Council appeals to the relevant authorities for engaging in illegal entrepreneurial activity – engaging in entrepreneurial activity without obtaining a license in cases where a license is required for the implementation of entrepreneurial activity."
Taleh Guliyev emphasized that in recent years, significant steps have been taken by the Audiovisual Council in the fight against pirate broadcasts: "Firstly, appropriate measures have been taken jointly with relevant authorities against operators entering the local market from abroad via the internet, and access to the internet information resources of about 20 foreign operators has been restricted by court order."
Taleh Guliyev also noted that necessary work is being carried out to prevent the broadcasting of television channels that the operator is not authorized to retransmit in the packages of operators operating under a license from the Audiovisual Council.
As a result of rotational monitoring, administrative offense protocols were drawn up against more than 20 platform operators for violating the requirement of Article 32.4 of the "Law on Media" (A platform operator must submit to the Council a copy of the contract concluded between it and a foreign audiovisual broadcaster or a person authorized to sign a contract on its behalf regarding the retransmission of foreign audiovisual broadcasters' programs), and these protocols were submitted to the relevant district (city) courts. The courts fined each of these operators 5000 manats. This process is currently ongoing. In the last 1 month, administrative offense protocols have been drawn up against 3 more operators and submitted to the relevant district (city) courts.