Women's World Cup 2023

With the Women’s World Cup finally underway across Australia and New Zealand, we are sure that premises will now be gearing themselves up in preparation to broadcast England’s first match scheduled for 10:30am on Saturday 22 July 2023.

As you prepare for the showing of these matches, it is important to ensure that your premises stays compliant and trades successfully. To help you, we have added some useful guidance below:

Screening of events

When it comes to broadcasting a sporting event, understanding whether permission is needed is largely down to what it is that you are showing.

Under the Licensing Act exemptions, no permission or licence is required when showing any form of live television. However, if you were planning to show pre-recorded matches beforehand or during breaks, then this would be licensable, and for this you would either need permission on your premises licence through the means of films or you would need to apply for a temporary event notice (TEN).

If you are planning to show the events in an outside area, the above still applies, however, you will also need to check your premises licence to ensure that you do not have any conditions that would restrict your usage of the outdoor area. If you do have a restriction, then you may require a TEN.

Please remember that you will need to have the correct commercial subscription in place with broadcasters and a valid TV licence to cover the showing of any of these events. Use this link for further information on this.

Check your premises licence

If your premises benefits from a premises licence, then prior to hosting an event always check your licence and the conditions to see whether the activities and times cover you for the length of your event. It is important that you also check your non-standard timings as there might be a condition that allows you to extend your licensable hours for international/major sporting events.

If you are not covered under your premises licence, then you will need to consider applying for a TEN.

Alcohol

If you are screening events in an outdoor area or outside of your usual operating hours, you may wish to also add a temporary outdoor bar or increase the hours that you sell alcohol. Like above, always check your licence first to understand your operating hours and conditions, as well as your plan to see whether your outside area is licensed (check the plan attached to your licence, if circled in red, then it will be part of the area where licensable activities can take place).

If your licence does not cover the hours that you are wanting to operate or your outside area falls outside of the licensed area, you will need to apply for a TEN.

Early/later opening

Due to the early/late timings for some of the scheduled matches, if you are wanting to open your premises outside of your current opening hours for the showing of the event and do not plan to have licensable activities taking place, you will most likely still need to apply for a TEN, unless your premises licence does not specify any opening hours or has 24 hours opening.

This is largely because opening hours, although not licensable, still form a condition of your premises licence and not abiding by the timings could be considered a breach.

Temporary event notices

Temporary event notices allow you to host an event that involves activities that would normally have to be licensed under the Licensing Act 2003. The TEN can be used for both licensed and unlicensed premises.

When applying for standard TENs, you need to ensure that you apply 10 working days before the event, not including the date of the event and the date of submission. If you are applying for a late TEN, then this needs to be submitted 5 working days before the event, but be aware, if you receive an objection to a late TEN there is no appeal process.

There is an allowance limit for TENs and for 2023/2024 they are as follows:

• If you have a personal licence to sell alcohol, you can be given up to 50 TENs a year. If not, then you are limited to 5.
• A single premises can have up to 20 TENs applied for in one year, as long as the total length of the events is not more than 26 days.
• If you’re organising separate but consecutive events, there must be at least a 24-hour gap between them with a TEN not being able to last for more than 7 days.

For the full list of matches and times, please visit FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ Scores & Fixtures

Please note that this information is for general guidance only and should not substitute professional legal advice. If you have specific concerns, we recommend consulting with one of our legal experts.