David Davies will unveil his controversial list of sport’s television “crown jewels” tomorrow, against accusations that some sports could be unplugged from tens of millions of pounds worth of commercial rights if they are prevented from selling themselves to pay-TV.
The former FA chief executive faces criticism from sporting bodies, as well as broadcasters, as his list of sports events that should be protected for free-to-air broadcast is published. The list is widely expected to include The Ashes, ending Sky Sports’ exclusive rights to the series, as well as the Olympics, England’s home rugby union internationals, England football’s home qualifying games for Euro and World Cup competitions, The Open Championship and Wimbledon.
The ECB has already told The Times this week that it could lose £120million if it is forced to switch The Ashes to terrestrial broadcasters. However, it is thought that the panel, led by Davies to investigate how the nation’s national sporting treasures should be broadcast, believes that the switch from analogue signals to digital in 2012 will broaden the scope for more channels to compete for broadcast rights.
That opinion comes against a background of fears that sports broadcasting is being reduced to a powerful duopoly of the BBC and BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times. ITV has largely dropped out of screening sport apart from football, which it regards as an audience winner, while the Five channel does not have the resources. ESPN has taken over as the major satellite competitor to Sky since the demise of Setanta Sport earlier this year but is still a comparatively minor player in the UK.
But much of the focus of the investigation has centred on cricket and the The Ashes in particular, which is seen as a national occasion that stands alongside the FA Cup in the esteem of the public.