A working group chaired by David Davies, the former executive director of the Football Association, had proposed last November that the two events should not be listed which could have meant a pay-to-air broadcaster such as Sky Sports could have bid for them.

But Robertson announced today in the House of Commons that he was to ignore the report and that the Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games would remain on the list, at least until after Britain has completed its switchover to digital televison in 2012.

More controversially, he also ignored Davies' call for a return to the list for the Ashes cricket series and all of England's home and away qualification matches for the FIFA World Cup and European Championships.

Robinson said: "I fully support the principle of protecting major sports events for free to air coverage.

"But with digital switchover concluding in 2012, this will result in the widespread availability of a significantly increased number of television channels, many of which will be free to air.

"Add to this the BBC’s Strategy Review, which will cover sports rights, and the Ofcom Pay TV Review,  the broadcasting context for this decision is increasingly unclear. 
 
"The current economic climate also points to us not making a decision at this time which could adversely impact on sport at the grassroots.

"I have therefore decided to defer any review until 2013, when we will look at this again."
 
Protests against the decision to de-list the Winter Olympics had been led by Andy Hunt, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association (BOA), and Rhona Martin, who had led Britain's women's curlers to the gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, when six million people, including reportedly the Queen, stayed up beyond midnight to watch the final against Switzerland screened live on BBC.

Hunt told insidethegames: "The BOA  welcomes and supports the decision of the Government to retain the Olympic Winter Games on the free-to-air list of events.

"This is an important development and we are pleased that our winter Olympic sportsmen and women will continue to be given the same chance as their summer sport counterparts to enjoy the spotlight generated by their Olympic participation.

"The opportunity presented by free-to-air broadcasting to reach the widest possible audience is essential to our winter sports in their drive to get young people inspired by sport, increase participation and ultimately find Team GB champions of the future."

Glasgow organisers of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, meanwhile, claimed that they faced a potential £20 million ($30 million) hole in their budget if they were de-listed.

They feared that by de-listing the Games, the Games would no longer receive the same in-depth coverage on the BBC and enjoy the huge resources that they had when they had served as host broadcaster at the 1970, 1986 and 2002 Games, which were all staged in Britain.

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