My hon. Friend is right, and I am sure that he would agree that, throughout the world, we are embarking on a broadcasting revolution. We will have to wait and see how it develops. I am sure that his concern about the likely effect on theatrical productions is well founded. We shall have to guard against that, and I thank him for raising the issue.

Matches shown on pay terms will be additional to the 60 games a year shown by BSkyB. The league believes that coverage of those matches will reach a new audience of football fans committed to—dare I say it—less fashionable clubs. Those fans may be unable to travel around the country to follow their teams' away matches. Of course, there are fans who, for one reason or another, cannot get to matches at all. Many of those matches would not be shown on BSkyB's general subscription service— or anywhere else, come to that—because the potential audience is small. Pay-per-view may have the potential to bring a new choice of services to football supporters, and there is no reason why that should not apply equally to fans of other sports.

We have to consider the position of top sports events, especially in football, which will, at least initially, attract broadcasters and sports bodies wishing to experiment with pay-per-view. Listing offers a good level of protection for free-to-air access to the very top occasions in the sport, such as the world cup, the European championships and the English and Scottish FA cup finals, but there are many other important matches. In considering the case for pay-per-view, football must be sure that it is not alienating its core audience. The Government believe that sport can and should act responsibly in making its broadcasting arrangements.

Finally, it is important that we consider the possibilities for pay-per-view football in a proper perspective. Live coverage of club football in this country is a comparatively recent phenomenon, but the free-to-air television viewer now has access to a larger number of matches than ever before. Last week, the free-to-air viewer had access to live or full delayed coverage of five top European club matches, including Manchester United's match in Denmark, which was shown by the ITV network. Two of the matches were broadcast simultaneously, but, armed with a video recorder, the viewer could have watched more than 16 hours of top football. All four of the universally available channels—and Channel 5—contributed to that figure.

The Government believe that it is important that pay-per-view should not develop at the expense of the general viewer, although we are not opposed to pay-per-view in principle. However, we also believe that free-to-air channels will continue to offer first-class sport, whatever the future shape of the broadcasting industry.

I hope that that will reassure my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, North-East. I am grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to set out the Government's position, and I again congratulate him on securing this important debate.