Ananova:

A review of sports broadcasting is to recommend that The Ashes returns to terrestrial TV, Sky News has learned.

Former FA boss David Davies has drawn up plans in which sporting events should only be shown on free-to-air channels and which should be available for all broadcasters to bid for.

Sky can reveal his recommendations include placing The Ashes back on the list of "crown jewels" which people must be able to watch for free.

The change is not expected to come into effect until 2016, which means BSkyB - the owner of Sky News - will continue to show cricket's gem for the remainder of its contract with the ECB.

But the move, while making the event available to all, could decimate the sport's revenue as the current deal with Sky is worth £300m.

The Open, the whole of Wimbledon and the home nations' home qualifying matches for the football European Championships and World Cup are also expected to be classed as events of "special national resonance".

The chief executive of the Scottish FA criticised the plans, saying they demonstrate a lack of understanding.

"The games should be free to air - well it sounds great, it's very populist in terms of the actual impact of it and I can understand that," Gordon Smith said.

"But from our point of view we think it would be disastrous for the game in terms of what we put into the game in Scotland."

Other governing bodies contacted by Sky News said they would reserve judgement until they read the recommendations when they are officially published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on Friday.

But the majority of Mr Davies' review is likely to be rubber stamped including plans to abolish the so-called B list of events, highlights of which must be shown on terrestrial TV.

Sporting fixtures like the Winter Olympics, the Derby, the Ryder Cup, Cricket World Cup and World Athletics Championships could find themselves de-listed.

Despite the potential loss of exposure, some believe these events could potentially benefit from deals with pay TV.

"If you can negotiate bigger deals by not being on the list, arguably you have more funds to put back into the sports and create a better spectacle on the ground," said brand expert Chris Lightfoot.

"That in turn provides sponsors with other opportunities and benefits."