The Olympics, the IOC, Streaming and Copyright

According to the International Olympic Committee (“IOC”), “broadcast coverage is the principal means for people around the world to experience the magic of the Olympic Games.” How does the IOC allocate broadcast rights for the Olympic Games? How has the IOC addressed the rise in digital streaming platforms and potential for copyright infringement?

The IOC owns the global broadcast rights for the Olympic Games and then allocates these rights to different media companies around the world through rights agreements. NBCUniversal, for example, announced before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that it would present an unprecedented 7,000 hours of coverage. NBCUniversal presented this coverage on cable networks and on streaming platforms and has secured U.S. media rights for the Olympics through 2032.

Although the IOC has increased coverage hours of the Olympics through rights agreements, the IOC has contemporaneously limited coverage of the Olympics by people or entities without such agreements. The limitations the IOC imposes unsurprisingly includes the use of takedown notices.

To whom is the IOC sending takedown requests? Before searching the Lumen database for takedown requests sent by the International Olympic Committee, I was expecting there to be a greater number of requests for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics compared to the 2016 Rio Olympics because of the rise in social media streaming platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. I was surprised to find that there was a relatively small number of takedown requests sent by the International Olympic Committee (and submitted to Lumen) during the Tokyo Olympics compared to the Rio Olympics.

The takedown requests from the Tokyo Olympics included: a DMCA notice to Twitter, where the allegedly infringing link led to a tweet by the Athletics Federation of India that had included a stream of the national anthem; DMCA copyright complaints to Google; and DMCA copyright complaints to Vimeo, which included a video titled the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony “Star Light Zone” Music. Unlike the takedown requests from the Tokyo Olympics, the takedown requests from the Rio Olympics were in large part sent by the International Olympic Committee to Periscope (Twitter’s live-streaming service). Twitter, however, shut down Periscope in March 2021, which explains why there were no takedown requests sent to Periscope for the Tokyo Olympics. It is curious, however, that there were not more takedown requests sent to other live-streaming services for the Tokyo Olympics in the Lumen database. Perhaps the IOC was still sending a high volume of takedown requests, but these takedown requests weren’t sent to companies like Google and Twitter, who regularly share the takedown requests with Lumen, but instead to TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms, that as of yet do not.

A content creator’s ability to instantaneously share a broadcast with thousands of followers on multiple social media platforms presents a challenge for the IOC, which looks to protect broadcasters’ rights. The IOC confronted this challenge in part by further restricting what athletes can post to social media. For example, the IOC does not allow athletes themselves to post social media video clips of their participation in the Olympic Games, although athletes can post still photos. Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah was even temporarily blocked from Instagram after she posted videos of herself winning races because she did not own the rights to the videos. In addition to limiting what athletes can post, the IOC has also issued takedown notices to unauthorized streamers who broadcasted clips from the Tokyo Games. Felix Lengyel, a popular Twitch streamer, received a takedown notice from the IOC and was temporarily suspended from his account after he livestreamed his reactions to a video clip of a badminton match from the Tokyo Olympics. The IOC press office explained its reasoning to issue the takedown notice, writing that the IOC needs the revenue generated by the exclusive broadcast rights agreements to hold the Games and that unauthorized streaming of the Games “puts the funding of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement as a whole at risk.”

In terms of takedown requests, will the next games be more similar to the Tokyo Olympics or the Rio Olympics? Perhaps the IOC will create more restrictions regarding what can be shared on social media ex ante, which would likely lower the number of takedown requests for the next Olympics because sharing video clips would be prohibited from the outset. The digital ecosystem of live-streaming and content creation has grown significantly between the Rio Olympics and the Tokyo Olympics and will likely continue to do so, which presents new challenges for the IOC, athletes, and content creators.

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Gaby is currently a Harvard Law School student and is interested in studying international law and data privacy. She is originally from New York City and in her free time enjoys running and baking.