Ashes FTA ruling 'due before election'

The government will reportedly make a decision before the next general election on whether to include the Ashes tournament among sporting events protected for free-to-air television.

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw will give his final ruling on the matter before June 3 after he provisionally accepted the recommendations of a review panel led by former Football Association executive director David Davies.

Bradshaw is currently hosting a 12-week consultation on the panel's conclusion that the cricket series against Australia, along with England's football tournament qualifying matches, the whole of Wimbledon, the Rugby World Cup and golf's Open Championship should join the list of events protected for free-to-air TV.

The panel also called for the Epsom Derby, rugby league's Challenge Cup final and the Winter Olympics to be removed from the list.

As the consultation comes to a close in early March and the general election must take place before June 3, Bradshaw will have a tight three-month window to reach his decision.

During a debate at Parliament's Westminster Hall, junior culture minister Sion Simon said: "The Secretary of State has provisionally concluded to accept the recommendations in the report but he is going to consider the implications on sporting bodies and grassroots sport and he has not reached any final views.

"The Secretary of State firmly intends to make an announcement on this before the election even though the consultation process doesn't close until the first week of March. It's a tight timetable to do a proper job but that's clearly his intention."

Should the Ashes rejoin the list, then it will anger the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which views the money gained from TV deals as vital for funding grassroots cricket development in the UK.

Back in 1998, the ECB lobbied for Test matches to be removed from the protected list, which enabled it to agree a £220m TV rights deal with Sky. A further £300m deal with the satcaster will come into force next year, which includes the 2013 Ashes tournament.

However, supporters point to the fact that 7.4 million people tuned in to watch the final Ashes Test at the Oval in 2005 when it was screened on Channel 4, compared to just two million who watched the climax of this year's tournament on Sky.