Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of including the six nations rugby union tournament in the Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events.
The Rugby Six Nations tournament has been a group B event on the listed events regime since 1998. As a group B event, live coverage may be provided by a subscription television service providing that delayed coverage or extended highlights are provided by a qualifying free to air channel.
The Government is clear that the existing list works well, and strikes the right balance between retaining free-to-air sports events for the public and allowing rights holders to negotiate agreements in the best interests of their sport. The Government therefore has no intention of undertaking a review of the list, or of moving the Six Nations from the category B list to the category A list.