Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changing viewing habits on the relevance of the Listed Events regime as a means of ensuring (a) the wide and (b) free availability of key national sporting moments.

As viewing increasingly shifts from traditional broadcasting to a variety of online and on-demand formats, the Government is keen to ensure that key sporting events remain available for people to watch for free in years to come.

The current ‘Listed Events’ regime only covers linear coverage rights. While we are fortunate that on-demand and linear rights continue to be sold together, and therefore jointly benefit from the protections afforded by the regime, the Government is conscious that this may not always remain the case.

The Government will set out its position on the inclusion of on-demand (or “digital”) rights in due course.