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Department for Culture Media and Sport

sports broadcasting

It is our responsibility to make sure that key sporting events are available to as many television viewers as possible, particularly those who cannot afford the cost of subscription television.

We do this by maintaining a list of sporting events that must be made available for transmission by selected channels. At the moment these channels are: BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five.

An event is only listed if it is of national importance or interest. Listed events are categorised in two groups: 

  • Group A events must be available for live broadcast
  • Group B events must be available as highlights

Listing does not guarantee that an event will be shown live on free to air television, and excluding an event from the list does not automatically mean that it won’t be.

The Secretary of State can revise the list of protected events but must take into account the views of broadcasters, sports rights holders and regulators before doing so.

More detailed information about the listing system is available from the Office of Communications (Ofcom).

Outside the listed events system we cannot force broadcasters to buy the rights to particular programmes. Subscription and pay-per-view broadcasters are often able to spend more on broadcast sports rights  than free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters; this is perhaps reflected in the amount of sport their niche channels have to offer.

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Consultation on listed events

A full review of listed events was published in November 2009. We are currently running a consultation on this review. The consultation closes on 5 March 2010.

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Current list of sports events protected

The revised list of sports events protected under Part IV of the Broadcasting Act 1996

Group A (Full Live Coverage Protected)

  • The Olympic Games
  • The FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament
  • The European Football Championship Finals Tournament
  • The FA Cup Final
  • The Scottish FA Cup Final (in Scotland)
  • The Grand National
  • The Derby
  • The Wimbledon Tennis Finals
  • The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final
  • The Rugby World Cup Final

Group B (Secondary Coverage Protected)

  • Cricket Test Matches played in England
  • Non-Finals play in the Wimbledon Tournament
  • All Other Matches in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament
  • Six Nations Rugby Tournament matches involving home countries
  • The Commonwealth Games
  • The World Athletics Championship
  • The Cricket World Cup - the Final, Semi-finals and matches involving home nations' teams
  • The Ryder Cup
  • The Open Golf Championship

 




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