Slot 05 of 05 · Commonwealth
Broadcast TV on a screen in a shop or venue
Under section 199 of the Copyright Act 1968, a person who causes a sound recording to be heard in public by receiving a TV or radio broadcast does not infringe the copyright in that recording, and a person who shows a film by receiving an authorised TV broadcast is treated as if licensed to do so. The section does not license the music itself: the Australian Law Reform Commission wrote in 2013 that a business playing broadcasts still needs a licence for the underlying musical works.
General information about copyright law, not legal advice. The Copyright Act, linked at the foot of this page, is the official text.
What section 199 covers, subsection by subsection
The compilation of the Act dated 2 April 2026 gives section 199, “Reception of broadcasts”, six subsections. Each is set out below.
| Subsection | What it says |
|---|---|
| (1) | Where a broadcast includes “a reading or recitation of an extract from a published literary or dramatic work”, and that inclusion does not infringe, a person who causes the work to be performed in public by receiving the broadcast does not infringe either. |
| (2) | “A person who, by the reception of a television broadcast or sound broadcast, causes a sound recording to be heard in public does not, by doing so, infringe the copyright, if any, in that recording under Part IV.” |
| (3) | A person who, by receiving an authorised TV broadcast, causes a film to be seen or heard in public is treated, in infringement proceedings, as if they held a licence from the film’s copyright owner. |
| (5) | If the broadcast was not authorised, proceedings are not brought against the person showing the film; the infringement counts in assessing damages against the maker of the broadcast instead. |
| (6) | A broadcast of a film is authorised only if made by, or with the licence of, the owner of the film’s copyright. |
| (7) | “A reference in this section to a broadcast must be read as a reference to a broadcast made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, by the Special Broadcasting Service Corporation, by the holder of a licence allocated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, or by a person authorised to make the broadcast by a class licence determined by that Authority under that Act.” |
The section names literary and dramatic works, sound recordings and films. It does not mention musical works.
Three things a broadcast carries, read against the section
- 1A film shown in a TV broadcast. Subsection (3) covers a film seen or heard by receiving an authorised TV broadcast, and subsection (6) says when a broadcast of a film is authorised.
- 2A song played on the radio or in a TV program. Subsection (2) covers the sound recording. The musical work is not named in the section, and the ALRC said a business still needs a licence for it.
- 3A passage read aloud from a book. Subsection (1) covers an extract from a published literary or dramatic work, where including it in the broadcast did not itself infringe.
In each case the section only helps where the broadcast comes from one of the broadcasters subsection (7) names.
Which broadcasts count
Subsection (7) limits the section to broadcasts from those four kinds of broadcaster. The ALRC described this framing as narrower than in some of the Act’s other broadcast exceptions, and explained that the references to “broadcast” in these exceptions limit them to broadcasting services under the Broadcasting Services Act.
The ALRC’s account of the policy is that allowing broadcasts to be received in public seems reasonable because controlling that kind of communication would be impractical.
Who the Act treats as showing it
Section 27 explains what performance means. A reference to performance includes “any mode of visual or aural presentation”, including presentation “by the use of reception equipment”. Where the equipment is “provided by or with the consent of the occupier of the premises”, section 27(4) deems the occupier “to be the person giving the performance or causing the images to be seen or the sounds to be heard, whether he or she is the person operating the equipment or not”.
So where a shop or venue occupier provides a screen, or consents to it, the Act deems that occupier to be the one giving the performance, even if someone else operates the screen.
The music in the broadcast
The ALRC took up exactly this question in chapter 19 of Copyright and the Digital Economy (ALRC Report 122), on a page dated 2 December 2013. Its example was a supermarket that plays the radio for customers.
The ALRC explained that section 199(2) meant the supermarket did not need a licence for the sound recording, but that it still had to get a licence for the musical works underneath it. Later in the chapter it said that businesses playing radio or TV broadcasts to customers already need such a licence for the music, and saw no sign that voluntary licensing was failing.
One sentence earlier in the same chapter sums up section 199 more broadly, as letting pubs, supermarkets and shops play broadcasts without infringing copyright. The fuller passage, and the Act’s own words, are narrower: the section covers recordings, films and readings, and the music needs its own licence.
The Act’s endnotes show section 199 was last amended by Act No. 45 of 2005, so the section has not changed since before the 2013 report.
An ad shown between programs brings its own rules: for elections, see election ads on a screen, and for gaming machines, gaming ads on a screen. All five guides are on the digital signs home page.