Is British Eventing's Structured Approach to Media Accreditation Flawed?

Media accreditation, and the issues around recording and publishing video from equestrian events, is a topic I've come back to many times in the twelve years since I won the Eventing Cinema competition back in 2014. I've provided links to a few of the relevant blogs below. If you read your way through these blogs and came away with the impression that things have got increasingly complicated and difficult in that time then you'd be correct. The good old days when I could turn up unannounced with a camera at an event, flash off a few videos and then publish them on YouTube are definitely over. Or are they?

Chatsworth 2015 - happy days
©Harveywetdog

Of course there are good reason why things have had to change. Fundamentally, I see the four principal drivers as

1. Increase in formal live streaming of events
2. Need to maximise potential event income streams
3. Social license to operate considerations 
4. Safeguarding considerations

We have discussed before that as sport is not a copyrightable work per se, this means that the only formal mechanism a governing body, or event organiser, has to control what is published is to control what is recorded.

The fact that this is counterintuitive, that any publicity for such a minority sport as equestrian has to be a good thing, is ignored. Far better that we do not potentially upset our broadcast partners or sponsors than we broaden our profile across social media. Equestrian sport has become totally risk averse, which is quite ironic when you think of the risks involved in owning and riding horses.

It is to British Eventing's credit that they have taken the media accreditation bull by the horns and set out a structured approach for accrediting media professionals who wish to attend their events. This was announced in January 2026 although I didn't spot it until I stumbled across it by chance earlier this week.

The intention is that from January 2026, all media participants attending BE events in a professional or commercial capacity will be required to register with British Eventing before applying for event accreditation. We are told that "Event organisers will continue to manage their own event accreditation processes but will be required to ensure that all media applicants are registered with BE prior to confirming accreditation." 

To register you will require a formal DBS certificate from the/your government and, although not clear until you're in the process, to have completed basic FEI Safeguarding training. I think it is a given that most people will have public liability insurance but that is required as well. The DBS process takes time to clear and the training takes an hour to get through so you need to have these both completed in advance. One point to note is that the safeguarding training, while thorough, didn't really touch on the role of the videographer/photographer in regard to the topic.

There are a number of BE policies to read before you are able to submit your application, and all are straightforward and sensible and appear to be mostly based on the relevant FEI documentation that I've read in the past. I notice in the announcement from January 2026 there is talk of a £10 fee although this didn't seem to apply in my case (pensioners go free?!) The DBS check also involves a charge of about £21 so there are costs involved in the process I'm afraid. (It may be the registration charge applies if you are not already a BE member).

Badminton 2016 - very happy days
But is it worth £100 today?
©Harveywetdog

As I have said many times my YouTube videos don't earn very much, and when you consider the cost of diesel for the old Discovery, insurance, software licenses and equipment running costs it is fair to say that videoing for me is simply a serious hobby and is in no way supplementing my meagre pension. Accreditation works for me because it helps me avoid entry fees, often provides premium videoing spots and forward parking, sometimes a cup of coffee and a cake as well as somewhere to keep dry if it rains. But most importantly it works because it provides a yes or no answer to the all important "can I have permission to video at your event" question that BE suggested I always asked back in 2014.

"We do not include the general public in this definition and welcome their promotion and coverage of the sport."

Which brings us to the BE Content Creator Policy. A Content Creator is defined as a person who creates content for a fee or other non-financial reward. The policy suggests that for events at 3*L and above a Content Creator should be charged between £50 and £100 for creating five 30 second videos per day of competition. So if you went to Badminton and created twenty 30 second videos across the four days, each short would have to make £4 for you to simply break even which equates to you needing 100k views per short which I'm afraid simply doesn't happen. 

(Ironically AI reports that the most popular videos are the falls and refusals montages, created by recording the output from Badminton TV in contravention of copyright law and social license to operate common sense).

So what is this telling me? Simply that in future I'll be better off to stop monetising my new videos, pay my entry fee and act as a member of the general public, promoting and covering the sport. That has to be better than paying good money to be told what I can't do.

There are two things I still need to consider

1. Does the entry ticket imply that you should not photograph the event?
2. What will British Dressage do? In the past they have said that they will confiscate equipment of unaccredited photographers.    

Links to previous blogs

Media Accreditation - what could be more simple? 

Did he jump or was he pushed?

Surviving a YouTube copyright strike

Public filming and streaming policy at Blenheim 2025