The UK government will in 2013 launch a fresh review into the list of sports events reserved for free-to-air television, David Davies, the chairman of the most recent review into the so-called “listed events”, has said.
Davies, who led a 2009 review, said in the Daily Telegraph that “broadcasting sources” had told him the new inquiry would be launched next year.
He said the current list requires “fine-tuning” to adapt to the growth of digital television, which has led to the possibility of pay-television broadcasters such as BSkyB and ESPN showing a “small number” of major sporting events free-to-air.
Davies said: “You are already seeing Sky Sports and the [UK public-service broadcaster] BBC working together successfully on the coverage of Formula One and some golf. Guaranteeing all the crown jewels of sport free-to-air to the widest audience, not least in difficult economic times, surely matters. The present list, however convenient, is illogical, and, ultimately, many of us argue, unfair to some sports. Time for change, surely, not just hoping the problem will go away.”
Meanwhile, in Australia, four of the largest national sports governing bodies have come together to urge the country’s senate committee to alter the government’s proposed new ‘anti-siphoning’ (listed events) list.
The Australian Football League, the National Rugby League, Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia have expressed concern that the bill would allow the government communications minister – currently Stephen Conroy – to decide that an event should be reserved for free-to-air television at just one week’s notice.
“We think the bill is an improvement on the previous regime but we would ask the committee to look at the ministerial discretion that exists in the current bill,” Cricket Australia’s Libby Owens said, according to the Australian newspaper.
The bill was introduced to parliament last month and is currently being debated by the senate committee.