THE UK Government has said it would not be appropriate for ministers to tell broadcasters to air major Scottish sporting events for free.
The refusal to intervene comes after the Commons’ Scottish Affairs Committee called for the government to be more proactive.
Currently, England supporters can watch their national team’s UEFA qualifiers on Channel 4, while Welsh fans can view their side's matches on Welsh language station S4C.
Viaplay, a subscription-only service, has the rights to Scotland men's games until 2028.
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In their report, the committee said public service broadcasters were often priced out of events like international football and that rights holders had no incentive to give up their exclusivity.
They recommended the UK Government “communicate a clear expectation to public service broadcasters in Scotland that they should be regularly and proactively approaching subscription services which have purchased the rights to broadcast major Scottish sporting events, to explore options for sharing those rights.”
They also said ministers should “clearly communicate to subscription services and the national sporting bodies that act as rights holders that it expects them to carefully consider the public interest benefits of public service broadcasters having a share in these rights in this way.”
The cross-party group of MPs also recommended the UK Government “establish a review to consider options to improve free-to-air access to Scottish international football” and suggested that this could ultimately lead to “specific Scottish events covered under the listed events regime to include not just the Scottish FA Cup final but also Scotland’s World Cup and European Championship qualifiers.”
That would mean that the broadcast rights to these events would need to be offered to the main free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters on “fair and reasonable terms”.
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In their response, the UK Government said that, given public service broadcasters’ operational and editorial independence, it “does not believe it would be appropriate to be more prescriptive about which specific rights they should seek to acquire and from whom they should seek to acquire them”.
“The Government is keen to ensure sporting events are made available to the public throughout the UK’s nations and regions which is why we have the listed events regime.
“Our objective for the regime is to ensure that key sporting events of national interest are widely available and free-to-air for all audiences, particularly those who cannot afford to watch sport behind a paywall, insofar as is practicable and reasonable.
“Sports rights holders use income from the sale of broadcast rights to the benefit of the wider sporting sector, so it is important that the regime continues to strike the right balance between accessibility, and the ability of sporting organisations to generate revenues to invest in their sports at all levels.”
The government added that the current "works well to deliver the best outcome and that it strikes an appropriate balance" and therefore they had "no plans to undertake a full review of the list.”
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As certain elements of broadcasting are devolved, they also said it would be for the Scottish Government “to consider in the first instance whether there is currently the right balance between Scottish rights holders’ ability to generate sufficient income and access for Scottish audiences to those sporting events”.
Pete Wishart, the Chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee, said he was disappointed by the response.
He said: “The UK Government has decided to stick to the status quo by refusing to take steps that could allow more Scottish fans to watch major sporting events for free.
“Our Committee made the case that Scottish fans are disadvantaged compared to those in England and Wales where viewers can watch more events – including men’s international football – for free.
“This response to our report wholly fails to reflect the strength of feeling on this issue from Scottish fans and the members of our Committee. We are therefore expecting to hold a debate in the House of Commons in June, ahead of the next round of men’s UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers, to explore this issue further.”
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