FOOTBALL — World and European championship qualifiers
Background All the home nations’ qualifying games will be on free-to-air channels. England have a contract with ITV and Wales and Northern Ireland have contracts with BSkyB until 2012. Scotland have a contract with BBC and BSkyB until 2014.
The winners:
Free-to-air channels The BBC has conceded that listing qualifying matches will “result in some market impact”. At present an England game can cost up to £5 million and other home nations’ matches range between £300,000 and £600,000 for a broadcaster. Without competition from Sky and ESPN, games such as England v Croatia, which attracted 9.8 million viewers on ITV in September, will inevitably be cheaper for the remaining free-to-air providers.
Fans The 2 million Scotland fans who made up 32 per cent of the total television audience to watch their national team play Norway in August will continue to enjoy football free.
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The losers:
The football associations All the home nations rely on broadcast rights as a significant proportion of their income, money that is used to fund the game at a grassroots level. Lower fees for games would particularly affect Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who qualify less frequently for the main tournaments and who rely more heavily on income from the qualifying matches.
The Scottish FA said that “should our ability to go to an open market be restricted”, it believed “the shortfall to Scottish football could be up to £12 million per year. To put it simply, Scottish football cannot afford to lose this amount of money and be expected to exist in the future.”
The Welsh FA described the potential loss of revenue as “catastrophic”.
Sky The pay TV operator misses out on an opportunity to be associated with the national teams.
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CRICKET — Ashes Test matches played in Britain
Background England’s home cricket Tests were removed from the protected list in 1998. Since 2006 all England cricket Tests have been screened exclusively live on pay TV. A return to the list will mean home Ashes Test series broadcast on free-to-air television. The current contract with Sky and Five expires in 2013 and the first Ashes series affected will be in 2016.
The winners:
BBC Of the free-to-air broadcasters, only the BBC could currently afford to bid for the 2.2 million audience that saw the 2005 Ashes on Channel 4.
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Casual fans The average live TV audience per session of play in the 2005 Ashes series on Channel 4 was 2.2 million, compared with 0.6 million per session in 2009 on Sky. A return to the BBC would mean more casual fans viewing.
The losers:
England and Wales Cricket Board The ECB states in its annual report that broadcast rights “underpin the financial security of the board in the medium term”. Analysis of Ofcom’s pay-TV investigation has revealed that annually the ECB would lose about £22 million per year without Sky. The board currently puts £86 million a year from its £93 million revenue into the game and would have to reduce this investment.
Sky Sky reportedly spent £300 million on securing the rights to English Test matches from 2010 until 2013. Losing the prestige of the home Ashes Tests may affect the steady growth of its cricket viewing figures.
TENNIS — Wimbledon fortnight
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Background The BBC is contracted as the host broadcaster until 2014
The winners:
BBC Currently only the finals weekend is on the list, although the Lawn Tennis Association has never offered the rights for the rest of the tournament to anyone except the BBC. Full protection will mean that the BBC would be able to negotiate a better deal for covering the tournament
The fans 8.5 million people watched Andy Murray play in the last 16 of Wimbledon this year. Without protection, technically, matches such as these could have been sold to other broadcasters
The loser:
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Lawn Tennis Association Last year Wimbledon generated £27 million of surplus revenue, much of which was from broadcast rights, equating to 58 per cent of the LTA’s total revenue. This surplus is mainly used to fund investment in tennis around Britain, including £14.2 million in player programmes and £6.5 million in tennis support. Any reduction in the BBC’s future payments for Wimbledon rights could be lost directly from investment in grass-roots tennis