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Smith, Paul and Evens, Tom

 

According to Paul Smith (De Montfort University) and Tom Evens (Ghent University), sports coverage is essential in achieving PSB’s key ‘public purposes’. In an era of multi-channel digital television and increasingly fragmented audiences, ‘live television coverage of major sporting events remains one of the few forms of programming able to bring the nation together’. Yet, with the escalating costs of sports rights, driven largely by the growth of pay-TV since the 1990s, as well as the cuts to PSB funding (and the BBC in particular), there is a very real danger that sport (and especially live sport) will become an increasingly marginal feature of public service television. The listed events policy remains a vital safeguard for the preservation of major sporting events and ‘the case for listed events legislation based on the need to preserve/enhance cultural citizenship remains as strong as ever.’

Smith and Evens