Sky Sports and BT are in talks about making a selection of the remaining matches of the Premier League season free-to-air, it has been revealed.
The 2019/20 season is on hold in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic with clubs working towards a solution that will see the current campaign completed rather than cancelled altogether.
The likeliest option appears to be playing the outstanding fixtures behind closed doors without fans to protect from a possible spread of the virus.
How said matches would then be broadcast is one of the many issues with such a plan that are yet to be decided.
But speaking at a meeting of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee on Wednesday culture secretary Oliver Dowden said conversations have been had between the Premier League and broadcasters about making matches available for everyone to watch without subscription.
Julian Knight, the committee chairman, asked if the Premier League should be offered free to air if it does play behind closed doors, to stop people going to their friends’ houses to watch subscription packages.
Mr Dowden said: “Yes, it’s a very good point and I’ve raised exactly this challenge to the Premier League in the conversations that I had with them.
“I have said to the Premier League in particular, it wouldn’t send the best signal if they were the first or one of the first major sports to resume behind closed doors and the public at large wouldn’t have access to it.”
When further pushed by Knight on whether that meant we could expect to see matches on BBC or ITV, Dowden said: “I’m certainly not going to jump a further step ahead and start speculating about the platform upon which they might broadcast.
“To your point, if they are being mindful of access points that doesn’t just have to be going onto traditional terrestrial matches, or even showing all of the matches.
“There’s all sorts of creative options within that but it is something they should be considering, and they have said they are.”
Dowden said there had been “productive conversations” with sporting bodies about how they might go about resuming activity in the event of restrictions being relaxed, but insisted these were on a “without prejudice” basis and that nothing would happen unless scientific advice changed.
“We have had productive conversations. We must be content that it sends the correct signal. But within that we have been involved in some constructive discussions. We have already engaged with the police, Public Health England, the Local Government Association and others. We’re progressing this.
“We want to get to a point where we’ve bottomed out with this work, dealt with all the practicalities of it, then if the wider circumstances permit we would seek through Cobra and others to do it. That is not what we’re talking about right now, but we want to make sure we do all the preparatory work.”
Professional football in the UK is currently suspended indefinitely with talks still ongoing about when a realistic return date will be.
Uefa confirmed earlier this week that it strongly recommends member leagues to complete their seasons but that it would be open to cancelling campaigns “in special cases”.
