Published: Wednesday, 28th July, 2010 11:10am
MSP slams delay on Scotland TV matches decision
by Hamish Hutchinson
Comments (3) | 
Print | 
Email
Keith Brown is unhappy with the delay in a decision on free to air Scotland matches.
SCOTLAND football fans will have to continue watching international matches on satellite television after the UK government postponed a review on free-to-air sporting events until 2013.
Ochil MSP Keith Brown described the decision by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition as "disgraceful and disrespectful".
He had previously led the debate in the Scottish Parliament calling for all Scottish international football matches to be shown live on terrestrial television.
An independent commission last year recommended broadcast rights for Home and Away qualification matches in the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championships should be reserved for free-to-air channels.
However Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson has now deferred implementing the recommendations until 2013 claiming that they would adversely impact sports at grassroots level if enacted before the end of the digital switchover.
He said, "I fully support the principle of protecting major sports events for free to air coverage. But with Digital Switchover concluding in 2012, this will result in the widespread availability of a significantly increased number of television channels, many of which will be free-to-air.
"Add to this the BBC's Strategy Review, which will cover sports rights, and the Ofcom Pay TV Review, the broadcasting context for this decision is increasingly unclear."
It means all of Scotland's home matches will continue to be shown on Sky with rights to away matches sold to broadcasters on an individual basis by the Scottish Football Association (SFA).
The SFA, whose current deal with Sky runs until 2014, feared an annual loss of revenue of up to £12 million had the government added home nation matches to the free-to-air list.
But Mr Brown said the decision means thousands of Scotland fans will remain cut off from seeing their team play on the international stage.
He said, "It is ridiculous that the only way for Scotland fans see their team play is to sign up to satellite or cable TV stations.
"The continued failure of the BBC or ITV to recognise their obligations to Scottish sports fans and to invest in showing Scotland games as they do in other sports such as Formula one is one part of the problem.
"The Tories have ensured that by kicking this issue back to 2013, there will be no change for those fans eager to see the qualifiers for the next European or World Cup.
"This is another disgraceful and disrespectful decision by the Tories and shows why they repeatedly fail to qualify with the Scottish electorate."
A Public Attitudes to Broadcasting survey 2009 published by the Scottish government revealed that 81 per cent of Scots wanted to see Scottish international football games on free-to-air television.
