24 Thursday April 28 2022 | the timesNews
Crown jewel sport events will
remain on free-to-air channels
The Olympics, Wimbledon and the
World Cup will be protected as free-
to-air events on television and online
under proposed new laws.
Ministers want sporting spectacles
to continue to reach the widest poss-
ible audience free of charge as TV
viewing habits become increasingly
fragmented.
So-called “crown jewel” protec-
tions will be strengthened to ensure
that only the BBC, ITV, Channel 4
and Channel 5 can broadcast events
such as the FA Cup final.
The government also wants to
protect digital rights, which are not
covered by listed event regulations,
meaning that streaming services
could put sporting events behind a
paywall.
The proposals feature in a govern-ment white paper published today,
which will pave the way for the first
significant update to UK media laws
since the 1996 Broadcasting Act.
The paper will set in motion plans
to privatise Channel 4 and propose
giving public service broadcasters
greater flexibility on quotas such as
commissioning producers outside
London. It will safeguard their promi-
nence on smart TVs. The govern-
ment will also introduce legislation to
regulate streaming giants such as
Netflix and Amazon.
Ofcom will have the power to fine
the services up to £250,000 if they
break a “video-on-demand code”
designed to protect audiences from
harmful content, such as unchal-
lenged health claims. Ministers hope
that this will level the playing field for
traditional broadcasters, which are
subject to rules policed by Ofcom.The white paper will also say that
the government intends to review the
BBC’s licence fee funding model
before its charter renewal in 2027.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secre-
tary, told The Spectator’s Women with
Balls podcast that the fee was “com-
pletely outdated”. She added: “We are
going to very soon announce that we
are going to be looking very seriously
about how we fund the BBC.”
Tim Davie, the BBC director-gen-
eral, said yesterday that the corpora-
tion would make fewer programmes
and increase the volume of repeats on
television so it could focus its resour-
ces on higher-quality content.
“The idea of trying to protect
universality by doing everything with
every service is the wrong way
forward,” Davie told the Voice of the
Listener & Viewer conference. “You
spread yourself too thin.”Jake Kanter Media CorrespondentSniffer dog
makes the
grade at last
A failed sniffer dog finally had her day
after discovering an unexploded
Second World War mortar during her
daily walk.
Luna, a four-year-old cocker spaniel,
was bred to follow in the footsteps of her
mother, who worked as a sniffer dog at
Heathrow. But breeders thought she
lacked the nous and sold her when she
was five months old to Steve Rose and
his wife Kay.
On Sunday, Luna proved there was
nothing wrong with her sense of smell
when she uncovered an eight-inch long
explosive at Winterton-on-Sea, Nor-
folk, and proceeded to toss it around
“like a tennis ball”. The shell was safely
detonated by an army bomb disposal
team which drove more than 80 miles
to the beach. “She has always liked
sniffing out things around the dunes.
She has found the odd dead seal, but the
most common thing she finds are pop-
sicle lolly wrappers,” Steve Rose said.
Ali Mitib
ELLIOTT FRANKSThe future’s bright Subconscious By Weirdcore is among the installations at Future Shock in London, which celebrates artists at the forefront of digital technology