UBO (Union of Broadcasting Organisations) was established in 1985 and is a co-operation among TV stations regarding retransmission of their TV and radio channels by third-party distributors on all kinds of platforms; cable, including IPTV and WebTV (OTT), and wireless on satellite and digital terrestrial networks (DTT). Reception takes place on all kinds of television sets, PCs, tablets and smart phones, in and outside the home (portability/Out of Home/TV Everywhere). Further UBO handles TV stations’ rights to third-party distributors’ new digital services such as Start Over and various catch-up and on-demand services, both regarding the TV stations’ linear TV channels and their on-demand content, over the same platforms and for reception on the various devices.

In addition UBO handles the use of TV content in public places and use for educational purposes, as well as TV stations’ rights to compensation for private copying in the Nordic countries.

UBO enters into agreements with the TV distributors and other users in co-operation with the collecting societies that represent all the other rights holders in the respective countries under statutory extended collective licence arrangements. Thus the agreements regarding retransmission and other use of radio and television content entered into between UBO and the collecting societies on the one side, and the distributors on the other, clear all rights to retransmission/the defined use of the channels/content in question.

Today UBO operates in Denmark (UBOD), Norway (UBON), Sweden (UBOS), Iceland (UBOI) and Estonia (UBOE).

For more information about the Nordic extended collective licence arrangements see article of September 2009, article of January 2015 and article of May 2021 by Terese Foged.

For more information in Danish about access to neighbouring countries’ channels in the Nordic countries see article of September 2008 by Ann Grew Pfeiffer.