Sportgulation: Courts as ‘deus ex machina’ in defining the ‘public interest’ in sport broadcasting – The case of Israel

In 2005, following an appeal to the High Court of Justice, secret financial agreements between the Israel Broadcasting Authority and Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team (a privately owned team that plays regularly in top European tournaments) were exposed. The documents revealed that the Israel Broadcasting Authority paid 26 million dollars in the previous six years for broadcasting Maccabi’s games, in addition to indirect payments related to sponsors. At the same year, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Israeli Broadcasting Authority to broadcast all games of the Israeli women’s basketball champion, as part of European tournaments, after the Authority refused to do so. Why was one team favored by the public broadcasting service while the other required court intervention? Who, then, defines the public interest in sport? Who enjoys being broadcast: only national teams in popular sport branches (football and basketball) or private teams as well? Is it ‘men only’ or women’s sport is also considered worthy to be broadcast? This study seeks to examine the pressures and interests regarding sport broadcasting and focus on the role of courts as a ‘deus ex machina’ in solving the competition between the public and private interests. Based on analysis of courts’ decisions and in-depth interviews with senior officials at the three regulatory organs, who regulate all Israeli TV outlets and channels, we draw a complicated web of economic, political, and legal interests and pressures. When no one wins the ‘pressure game,’ it comes to court, which has to decide and define what a ‘public interest’ is, and thus becomes, de facto, a fourth regulator of the TV in sport broadcasting. The decisions made concerning sport broadcasting rights in Israel offer a window in the wider question of how Israel defines the public interest in broadcasting.