Huge UK rule change could mean World Cup, Wimbledon and Olympics watch | UK | News

A new rule change could allow top-flight sports to be watched for free in the UK. The government has proposed new legislation that would allow viewers to watch the world’s biggest sporting events, including the World Cup, Olympics and Wimbledon, for free.

The new law will prevent broadcast and capture rights to these events from being put behind a paywall for UK viewers. Current legislation covering “crown jewels” events was created in 1996. At this point only 4% of UK households had internet access.

However, the decision does not prevent on-demand rights from being sold to a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime; Therefore, subscribers will be charged to watch sports whenever they want.

Other events listed as having such digital rights to now be added to the regime as part of the media green book published this week are the FA Cup final and the Grand National.

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Due to late-night kick-offs, many families are currently following the World Cup on-demand in the morning.

“With these changes, we safeguard for the future that broadcast rights to the biggest sporting events should be made available to our public service broadcasters.”

He continued: “Not only will this help broadcasters compete, it will also ensure people never miss watching the history-making sports moments that brought us together as a nation, for free and whenever they want.”

A report by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in 2022 suggested that the previous government “should review the extension of the protections currently offered under the listed events regime to digital and on-demand content”.

Ministers were also asked to add the Six Nations rugby championship to the list of events.

However, the government currently has no plans to expand the list.