The government is stepping in to stop the World Cup, Olympics and other sporting crown jewels from vanishing behind a streaming paywall. New legislation will force the rights to catch-up and on-demand broadcasts of the nation’s most-watched events to be offered to public service broadcasters — ensuring they remain free for viewers, no matter when they choose to watch.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said the move was driven by changing viewing habits. “Due to the late night kick-offs, so many families are currently following the World Cup by catching up on-demand in the mornings,” she said. “With these changes we are protecting that for the future, ensuring streaming rights for the biggest sports events must be offered to our public service broadcasters. This will not only help those broadcasters compete, it will make sure that people never miss out on the history-making sporting moments that bring us together as a nation, for free and however and whenever they choose to watch.”
“Government proposes new laws to prevent World Cup, Olympics and other major events from moving behind streaming paywalls.”
The current rules date from 1996, when only 4% of UK households had internet access. They do not prevent a streaming service such as Netflix or Discovery+ from buying the exclusive on-demand rights — meaning fans could one day be forced to pay to rewatch matches or historic moments. The new legislation will close that loophole, extending the so-called “crown jewel” list to include digital rights.
In addition to the World Cup and Olympics, the protected events will include the FA Cup final, the Grand National and the Wimbledon finals. The changes form part of a media green paper being published this week.
The intervention follows a 2022 report by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which recommended that the previous government “should review extending the protections currently offered under the listed events regime to digital and on-demand content”.
Ministers had faced some pressure to add the Six Nations rugby championship to the list. But the government has no plans to expand the roster, saying it currently strikes the right balance between keeping the biggest moments free-to-air and protecting organisers’ ability to raise income from broadcast rights sales.