Live sports programmes have huge commercial potential and traffic value, and their production and investment involve the interests of many parties, and their creators, investors and distributors have strong claims to copyright protection. Adequate protection of the copyright of live sporting events will be very beneficial to the development of China's sporting event industry, as well as to the improvement of the copyright legal system. To date, there is still no consensus among the legislature, the judiciary and the industry in China on the nature of live sporting events, and therefore the protection of live sporting events is inconsistent. Through a combination of theoretical and practical analysis, this article seeks to clarify the dilemma of copyright protection for live sports programmes, and to provide a thorough analysis and legal conclusion on the nature of live sports programmes, the standard of originality and the attribution of their rights, with a view to providing reasonable reference for copyright protection for live sports programmes.