The List Of Major Sports Events Broadcasting Mechanism Under The European Union Law

The ‘List of Major Events’ Mechanism is an important legal system in the fieldof European Union（EU） sports law aims to ensure that audience can watch eventsof major importance to society free, so that the audience can effectively achieve theright to know. In the European Union, the legal systems of member countries onbroadcasting rights are not the same, which lead to chaos in the EU internal market.This mechanism allows the EU to form a more consistent regulation framework, andhelp unify the entire EU market. Although member countries can choose to adopt thismechanism or not voluntarily, in fact, the mutual recognition system encouragesmember countries to make a list of events of major importance to society to ensuretheir nationals’ right to watch important sports events.But this mechanism is not perfect, it has some loopholes. As the EU onlyprovides a general legal framework, the specific implementation details remain withthe Member States’s discretion, a lot of issues arises in the practice which mayprevent the purpose of this mechanism from being achieved, so further improvementshould be made: in some countries the ‘List of Major Events’ Mechanism is outdatedand should be updated; the scope of the event either broadcasting live or delayed maybe improper, and a standardized criteria should be established; free TV can not getbroadcasting rights or are not interested in buying broadcasting rights to events ofmajor importance, resulting in pay-TV broadcasting these events exclusively. In thisrespect, we can learn from Australia’s anti-siphoning regulation and requires theMember States to review their list in time; as free television does not broadcast eventswhich they have bought broadcasting rights, this may lead to Hoarding Effect and‘must broadcast system’ can be introduced to resolve this. To consummate the list ofmajor events mechanism, the characteristics of the EU itself must be considered;when drawing on some more mature legislation, such as the anti-siphoning rules andanti-hoarding rules in Australia, some changes must be made according to the actualsituation of EU countries.In China, with the rapid development of pay-TV, many sports events begin toshift to pay-TV platform, some audience can no longer watch their favorite eventsfree and live, which has sparked widespread controversy. As a sports power, sports isof great importance to China. To ensure the right to know, we can learn from the EU’s‘List of Major Events’ Mechanism and make relevant laws to ensure that in principle, the events of major importance must be broadcast on free television, to protect theaudience’s right to know and promote the development of sports. The legislatorshould determine the scope of events of major importance to society according ourcountry’s culture and tradition, define the scope of free TV and make specificregulation and supervision mechanism.