Roger Mosey, the BBC's director of sport, has outlined the corporation's intent to defend the listing system that currently preserves certain events for broadcast on free-to-air television.

In a speech given at the University of Westminster on 10 March, Mosey said that the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics highlights the need to retain free-to-air rights for large sporting events in order to make them available to as many television viewers as possible. Culture secretary Andy Burnham recently launched a review of the listing system following criticism that it restricts competition, although Mosey argued that viewing figures for 'crown jewel' events would significantly decrease if the rights are awarded to pay TV companies.

The BBC currently holds free-to-air rights to the Wimbledon tennis championships, the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the Grand National, and Formula One motor racing, as well as Premier League football highlights on Match of the Day and radio rights for Test match cricket. Mosey said: "We believe it's vital that the biggest sports events remain available to the maximum number of people in the UK. The 2012 Olympics would be diminished if they weren't available free-to-air to everybody and our whole philosophy is about making the London Games widely available whenever and wherever people want it.

"We want to maintain access to sport for people who don't want to pay subscriptions; and, even more crucially, we see it as a public service commitment to win over light or casual viewers to the events they come across on our mass-audience channels."