UK Proposes Free Streaming Access for Crown Jewel
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- The UK government is proposing new legislation to prevent streaming and catch-up rights for "crown jewel" sporting events from being placed behind paywalls, as part of a media green paper being published this week.
- The current "listed events" regime was established in 1996, when just 4% of UK households had internet access, and contains no provision barring on-demand rights from being sold to streaming services like Netflix or Discovery+.
- The World Cup, Olympics, FA Cup final, Grand National, and Wimbledon finals are among the listed events that will have digital and on-demand rights added to the scope of the regime.
- Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the changes would protect families who currently catch up on World Cup matches on-demand, help public service broadcasters compete, and ensure people "never miss out" on history-making moments.
- A 2022 Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee report had recommended that the previous government review extending "listed events" protections to digital and on-demand content.
- The government has no plans to add the Six Nations rugby championship to the list, despite ministerial pressure, saying the current lineup strikes the right balance between free-to-air access and competition organisers' ability to raise revenue from broadcast rights.
Why it matters: The reform closes a 1996-vintage loophole by extending free-to-air protections to streaming and on-demand rights, directly benefiting UK public service broadcasters competing against deep-pocketed platforms like Netflix and Discovery+ for digital sports rights. At the same time, the government is declining to expand the event list — leaving Six Nations rugby outside the free-to-air guarantee despite calls to include it.
