The restrictions on any one broadcaster obtaining exclusive rights to certain sporting events of national interest was established originally by the Television Act 1954, giving the Government the power to draw up a list of non-exclusive or protected events, more generally known as ‘listed’ events.
Broadcasting Act 1996
The Act contains provisions to protect the availability of live coverage of listed events on free-to-air television. A subscription or pay-per-view service is not permitted to broadcast live coverage of a listed event unless rights are also made available to terrestrial free-to-air services with national coverage (the BBC, ITV or Channel 4). Equally, and on the basis of reciprocity, a terrestrial service is not permitted to broadcast live coverage of a listed event unless rights are similarly made available to subscription or pay-per-view services (and Channel 5). The ITC’s consent must be obtained for an event to be shown on a single channel.
The Code
The Act required the ITC to draw up a code giving guidance on the broadcasting of ‘listed’ sporting events. The Code on Sports and Other Listed Events was published, following consultation, in April 1997, and a further consultation on proposed changes took place in 1998, following changes to the listed events (see below). The 1996 Act introduces tighter more complex controls for the broadcasting of listed events than the 1990 Act, but removes the absolute bar on pay-per-view services obtaining rights for television coverage.
Listed Events
In 1991, the Home Secretary announced a reduced list of events which were not permitted under the 1990 Broadcasting Act, to be shown on television on pay-per-view terms. As stated above, the 1996 Act altered the rules surrounding the transmission of listed events; however, the list was not changed by the new legislation. In June 1998, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport announced a revised list of sporting events for which live coverage must be made available to free-to-air terrestrial television (Category A) and those for which live coverage might be shown on pay TV, provided there were satisfactory arrangements for secondary coverage by a free-to-air broadcaster (Category B). Following consultation by the ITC, these changes were incorporated in the ITC Code on Sports and Other Listed Events in 1999. The Code was further amended in January 2000 to implement certain European Broadcasting Directive requirements, giving the ITC responsibility to protect events listed by other EEA states in relation to broadcasters established in the UK and transmitting to those states.
One such broadcaster, TV Danmark, applied to the ITC in July 2000 for consent to show five Danish World Cup (football) qualifying matches, and was refused because the ITC felt that the free-to-air public broadcasters in Denmark had not been provided with a sufficient opportunity to acquire the rights to broadcast these matches. TV Danmark challenged the ITC’s decision and lost the judicial review but the ruling was overturned in favour of TV Danmark on appeal. The ITC appealed against this decision to the House of Lords who decided in favour of the ITC’s original decision therefore supporting the procedures which the ITC originally applied, and the ITC’s interpretation of the relevant jurisdictions. The code was amended in January 2002 in the light of the TV Danmark case.
Category A events: The Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament, the FA Cup Final, the Scottish FA Cup Final (in Scotland), the Grand National, the Derby, the Wimbledon Tennis Finals, the European Football Championship Finals Tournament, the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final and the Rugby World Cup Final.
Category B events: 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 (final, semi-final and matches involving home nations’ teams), the Ryder Cup, the Open Gold Championship.
Cable and Satellite Services
BSkyB launched its Sky Sports service on Astra in 1991 and the service was available on a subscription basis in 1992. A second Sky Sports Channel was launched in August 1994. In 1992, BSkyB secured the rights for £304m for Premier League soccer with live games to be transmitted only on Sky Sports and with recorded highlights on BBC. ITV offered £262m for the rights and subsequently queried the deal in the High Court, but failed to win their case. In 1996 a new deal was negotiated by BSkyB for a further four-year contract to run from 1997 with the Premier League. The rights were secured for £670m. In 1996 Sky introduced a third sports channel, Sky Sports 3 and in 1999 introduced Sky Sports Extra, to provide interactive sports coverage on digital services. The other major non-terrestrial sports channels (following the closure of ITV Sport in 2002) are Attheraces, Setanta Sports and various football club channels such as MUTV and Chelsea TV. Eurosport is a service licensed in France.
Sponsored Sport
The ITC Sponsorship Code provides broadcasters with rules for coverage of sporting or other events which are sponsored or where advertising signage or branding may be present (Section 19). Sponsorship of sport by tobacco companies is subject to a voluntary agreement between the tobacco companies and HM Government, last updated in 1995. Coverage by ITC Licensees of tobacco sponsored events must be consistent with the rules of this agreement or any relevant legislation in place at the time.
ITC Licences
To fulfil the diversity requirement of appealing to a wide variety of tastes and interests, regional Channel 3 licensees had to include sport as one of the nine programme strands without which they were unlikely to pass the quality threshold. Similarly, sport was one of the six programme strands specified for the national breakfast-time licensee. Sport was one of the 10 strands (main and sub-strands) specified for C5. The ITC’s annual report for 2002 noted that ITV had concentrated on top flight football and Formula 1, while Channel 4 and Five covered minority interests such as cricket, racing and motor cycling.
Further References
ITC Publications
* ITC Library bibliography: Sport and television
ITC code of programme sponsorship. (Section 19). 2000.
ITC Code on Sports and Other Listed Events (January 2002)
ITC News releases 29/97, 64/98, 89/98, 87/99, 09/00,13/00,14/00, 27/01, 29/01
ITC Annual Report and Accounts 2002.
External Publications
House of Commons: National Heritage Committee. Fourth report. Sports sponsorship and television coverage. (Session 1993-94: HC 289 I-III) London: HMSO, 1994
National Heritage Committee: First special report. Government Response to the fourth report of the National Heritage Committee. London: HMSO. (Session 1993-94) (Sports sponsorship and television coverage)
Department of National Heritage. Broadcast Sports Rights: informing the debate. London: DNH, February 1996
Broadcasting Act 1996. London: HMSO, 1996
June 2003
|