This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Enable free-to-air coverage of future Olympic events in the UK
The BBC coverage of Tokyo 2020(1) is awful and they claim they are restricted because the IOC sold the EU rights to Discovery+. UK taxpayers gladly support hundreds of athletes on their Olympic Pathways, but that should buy us the right to watch the events.
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Inform that IOC that it is unacceptable to sell the TV rights for close to £1bn to a commercial company that then restricts access behind a paywall. If taxpayers fund the athletes then taxpayers have the right to watch the events. The Government needs to insist that there be unfettered free-to-air access in the UK.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.
Petitions must call for a specific action that the UK Government or House of Commons is responsible for.
The Olympic Games are already listed as an event of national importance, which means that when they are held in the UK they must be made available on “fair and reasonable terms” to the free-to-air channels, but decisions about broadcasting of sporting events held outside of the UK are a matter for the organisers and individual broadcasters, not the Government or House of Commons.
As a result it is not possible for the Government or House of Commons to take the action you have requested.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.