The government is proposing new legislation to prevent streaming and catch-up rights to some of the world’s biggest sporting events – including the World Cup – being put behind a paywall for UK viewers.
The current legislation covering the so-called ‘crown jewels’ was established in 1996, when just 4% of UK households had access to the internet.
It does not prevent on-demand rights being sold to a streaming service such as Netflix or Discovery+, which would charge subscribers for watching at a time that suits them.
The Olympics, the FA Cup final, the Grand National and Wimbledon finals are among the other listed events that will now have such digital rights added to the scope of the regime, as part of a media green paper being published this week.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Due to the late night kick-offs, so many families are currently following the World Cup by catching up on-demand in the mornings.
“With these changes we are protecting that for the future, ensuring streaming rights for the biggest sports events must be offered to our public service broadcasters.
“This will not only help those broadcasters compete, it will make sure that people never miss out on the history-making sporting moments that bring us together as a nation, for free and however and whenever they choose to watch.”
In 2022, a report by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, external recommended that the previous government “should review extending the protections currently offered under the listed events regime to digital and on-demand content”.
Ministers had also been under some pressure to add the Six Nations rugby championship to the ‘crown jewels’ events.
However, the government has no plans to expand the list, and is said to believe that it currently strikes the right balance of ensuring many of the nation’s biggest sporting moments are free-to-air, while protecting competition organisers’ ability to raise income from the sale of broadcast rights.