Crown Jewels TV list faces revision

The UK's revised list of free-to-air TV sporting events is set to go back to the drawing board after the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) admitted the legislation would not be implemented before the general election.

DCMS had been due to make a decision on whether to ringfence sporting events such as the Ashes cricket series for free-to-air broadcasters before the general election following a recommendation by an advisory panel led by former Football Association chief David Davies.

Although Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw provisionally accepted the recommendations of the controversial "crown jewels" inquiry, DCMS has now admitted there is not enough time to finalise the bill. A DCMS spokesperson told Press Association Sport's www.thesportbriefing.com: "In accordance with election guidance, there will be no announcement about listed events in advance of the election."

With UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown having called the general election for May 6, Parliament has until this coming Monday to rush through legislation that would be unlikely to be reversed under a change of Government.

However, with Conservative Shadow Sports Minister Hugh Robertson having already called parts of the review "very foolish", the proposal will not be finalised during the so-called "wash-up" period before Parliament is dissolved at the start of next week.

The inquiry led by Davies recommended adding the home cricket Ashes series between England and Australia, England's football tournament qualifying matches, golf's Open Championship, Wimbledon and the Rugby World Cup to the list of protected events.

The proposal infuriated the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which argued that its income from Sky provides huge sums for the grass-roots game.

In February, Robertson said: "When the review was launched the calculation was made that there were an awful lot of votes in returning cricket to free-to-air.

"Now people are just waking up to the fact that 80% of the ECB's income comes from broadcast income and if you take that away you are going to decimate quite a lot of investment that's gone in to women's cricket and the grass roots.

"At a time when the public purse is under greater pressure than ever before, that's a brave if not a very foolish call to make."