Sky TV retains Ashes coverage for another three years
The Government is to allow the Ashes test cricket to remain on Sky’s pay TV channel.
Sports minister, Hugh Robertson, announced on Wednesday that Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV would be allowed to carry on broadcasting the Ashes test cricket matches until 2013, and possibly later.
The move is considered an insult by cricket fans. In 2005 eight million fans watched the series on TV. With the advent of pay TV, in 2009 the number had fallen to 1.5 million.
The announcement also flies in the face of 1998 rules, that major sporting events should be available for all to watch on free UK TV. The FA Cup Final, the Grand National and the Wimbledon tennis finals are deemed national events and shown on ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC.
David Davies, a former executive of the English FA, had recommended that the hugely popular Ashes games, between England and Australia, should be included with these special fixtures.
The ongoing economic slump, and the forthcoming switch to digital TV, were cited as the main factors for the delay in the Ashes being available to the general public again.
Mr Robertson stated that he thought major sporting events should be available to everybody. He added that after digital TV was fully operational in 2012, there would be more TV channels and a better choice of programmes.
A leading opponent of the Ashes returning to free-view TV is the England and Wales Cricket Board. The board gets 80 per cent its revenue from sales of TV rights. The cricket establishment says they need the income to support the lower levels of the sport.