Approved application: FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals Tournament 2023
We consulted between 4 and 11 July 2023 on requests from the BBC and ITV for consent to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals Tournament 2023 (“the 2023 Women’s World Cup”), which is taking place between 20 July and 20 August 2023.
Our consultation explained that we were provisionally minded to grant consent to the BBC and ITV. We received one response to the consultation from an individual.
In 2022 the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals Tournament was designated as a ‘Group A’ listed event. 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 require (among other things) in most cases that broadcasters obtain Ofcom’s consent to broadcast exclusive live television coverage of listed events.
The BBC and ITV plan to share coverage of the tournament, comprising 64 matches, and of the England matches, meaning each broadcaster will exclusively show half of the England matches and half of the total number of matches across the tournament. Both broadcasters will show the final.
ITV plans to broadcast live coverage of its share of England matches and the final on ITV1, with this also being broadcast across the Channel 3 network, which includes STV. Additional coverage will be provided on ITV4. The BBC plans to broadcast live coverage of the opening game, its share of England matches, a semi-final and the final on BBC One. Other matches will be broadcast primarily on BBC Two, with additional coverage available via the Red Button and iPlayer. The BBC will also broadcast live and delayed audio coverage on its national radio network.
Our consultation ran for a shorter period than usual. This was due to the applications being received later than expected. The BBC and ITV explained that this was due to delays in the acquisition of the rights from FIFA. We noted when publishing our consultation that FIFA, ITV, the BBC and the European Broadcast Union (EBU) had reached an agreement, but it was yet to be concluded due to delays caused by the more complex multi-party nature of the transaction involving multiple European broadcasters via the EBU.
We note that the agreement is still to be concluded but understand that the nature of the deal agreed in principle will not change materially, nor will the proposed coverage.
In relation to the BBC and ITV’s proposed coverage plans, the respondent to the consultation objected to the BBC acquiring rights to coverage on competition grounds on the basis that the BBC and ITV have significant market share already, and advocated for coverage of listed events on local TV services.
Rights to broadcast listed events are acquired by broadcasters from rights holders, not awarded by Ofcom. As explained in our consultation, we assess requests on the basis set out in our Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events, which explains that Ofcom will want to see that broadcasters have had a genuine opportunity to acquire the rights on fair and reasonable terms. Our consultation set out our provisional view that broadcasters (other than the BBC and ITV) had the opportunity to acquire the rights on fair and reasonable terms. We do not consider that the respondent’s concerns about the BBC’s market share are relevant to our decision.
The respondent also expressed concerns about which events are designated as listed events. However, under the Broadcasting Act 1996 the designation of listed events is a matter for the Secretary of State.
As there were no other responses to the consultation, we have decided to grant consent to the BBC and ITV’s applications to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, noting that the coverage plans secure that the 2023 World Cup World Cup finals are available to view live and for free by audiences across the UK.