Approved application: FIFA Men's World Cup finals tournament 2022-25

06 October 2022

We consulted between 7 September and 4 October 2022 on requests from the BBC and ITV for consent to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the FIFA Men’s World Cup Finals Tournament 2022 (“the 2022 World Cup”).

The FIFA Men’s World Cup Finals Tournament is designated as a listed event for the purposes of the listed events rules. The listed events rules are intended to promote the availability of certain events of national interest to view live, and for free, by the widest possible audience. The rules are established in the Broadcasting Act 1996 and in most cases require (among other things) that broadcasters obtain Ofcom’s consent to broadcast exclusive live television coverage of listed events.

The 2022 World Cup consists of 64 matches, coverage of which is to be shared between the broadcasters, except for the final which will be shown by both. The BBC requested consent to broadcast on BBC One and BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four where matches clash, they will announce scheduling for their matches closer to the event. ITV requested consent to broadcast on ITV and ITV4 on behalf of the relevant licensees for these services, they plan to use ITV4 when there are scheduling clashes on ITV.[1] Our consultation set out that we were provisionally minded to grant consent.

Ofcom received two responses to the consultation, from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (‘RNIB’) and from a member of the public.

The member of the public objected to the BBC’s proposed coverage because of the level of disruption to normal programming that would result. They referred to schedule changes which occurred as a result of coverage of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 in July, and questioned the use of BBC funds to acquire broadcast rights.

We appreciate not everyone will want to engage with the World Cup, but Parliament has created the listed events regime to promote the availability of these events to view live and for free by the widest possible audience. Additionally, scheduling and decisions about how the BBC allocates its funding are a matter for the BBC, rather than Ofcom.

RNIB set out concerns about the accessibility of BBC and ITV’s World Cup coverage to blind and partially sighted people, which it argued Ofcom should take into account when deciding whether to grant consent. They noted that they have often been told that audio description of live events for broadcast is not feasible. However, they provided examples of audio description for live sports, for example BT Sport provided live audio description of the 2021 FA Disability Cup.

Ofcom acknowledges the importance of the points raised by RNIB, we know that for many of the 2 million people in the UK living with sight loss, audio description could be key to unlocking the shared experience of live sport. We asked the BBC and ITV to provide details of their audio description plans for the 2022 World Cup. Neither broadcaster has plans to use audio description for live coverage of matches, noting the technical challenges of delivering such a service. The BBC and ITV said that they are in regular contact with the RNIB and we encourage them to engage further with the RNIB on the World Cup and future sporting events.

The listed events regime is principally concerned with the way broadcast rights are acquired to ensure their availability to as many people as possible. However, Ofcom has separate functions relating to the provision of television access services and promoting the understanding and enjoyment of programmes by people with disabilities, and (as indicated previously), we will consider whether to include more detailed advice in the ongoing review of our best practice guidelines (PDF, 174.3 KB), changes will be consulted on in the New Year.

Having considered the consultation responses, we have decided to grant consent to the BBC and to the relevant licensees on whose behalf ITV acts to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the 2022 World Cup, noting that the coverage plans secure that the 2022 World Cup finals are available to view live and for free by audiences across the UK.

1. The relevant licensees for the Channel 3 network are ITV Broadcasting Limited, ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, STV Central Limited and STV North Limited.  The relevant licensee for ITV4 is ITV2 Limited.