BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports...

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 1

BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Non-confidential version – includes redactions

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Overview

1.1.1. The BBC is one of the world‟s pre-eminent public service broadcasters, boasting

news resources which are the envy of media organisations the world over. This is

as true today as it was in March 1994, when BBC Radio 5 Live was launched to

extend choice on the UK‟s national radio airwaves by satisfying previously unmet

listener demand for continuous news.

1.1.2. Seventeen years later, BBC Radio 5 Live‟s budget stands at £71.8m, but as the

BBC Trust undertakes the first ever public review of the radio station, listeners are

more likely to associate 5 Live with sport and football than the 75% news service

described in its service licence. Once a highly distinctive service fulfilling a unique

public service role, today 5 Live is at a crossroads, boasting a large, male

dominated audience, but unclear as to what it is there to do. This review is

therefore timely. As the operator of 5 Live‟s principal commercial competitor,

talkSPORT, we welcome the signs that the BBC Trust is approaching it with

thoroughness and care.

1.1.3. Our submission proposes a simple solution to restore 5 Live‟s distinctive position

within UK radio: a return to its original news remit, coupled with greater balance in

its sports output. To achieve this, we suggest a series of revisions to 5 Live‟s service

licence, which are backed by detailed evidence from listeners, experts and the

wider radio market. The revisions we propose arise from two key assertions:

1. 5 Live‟s news programmes should expand upon the major national and

international news headlines of the day whilst covering important stories

that are neglected elsewhere in the mainstream news media.

2. Once the London 2012 Olympics are concluded, 5 Live should secure a

legacy for minority and Olympic sports on mainstream UK radio by

committing to daily coverage of „minority‟ sports in its flagship sports

programmes.

1.1.4. Amending BBC Radio 5 Live‟s service licence in this way can spark a change in

culture within 5 Live to coincide with its move to new studios in Salford. Our

suggested changes would leave no ambiguity about 5 Live‟s objectives. Rather

than chasing ratings or competing with commercial stations, 5 Live would gain a

distinctive public service focus, imbued with the values of the BBC‟s „Quality First‟

strategy.

1.1.5. Our submission also includes proposals in relation to 5 Live Sports Extra, as well as

observations on 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra‟s delivery of value for money.


1.2. 5 Live‟s news programmes should expand upon the major national and

international news headlines of the day whilst covering important stories that are

neglected elsewhere in the mainstream news media

1.2.1. Our submission includes the findings of independent content analysis by Robin

Britten, visiting lecturer at the University of Staffordshire, and a former News Editor

and founding Editor at BBC Radio 5 Live. This analysis indicates that news

comprises only 50.1% of 5 Live‟s output, against a service licence requirement of

75%. Including sport summaries and trails the percentage of news increases to just

58.9%.

1.2.2. Britten‟s report also sets out a recommended set of definitions for news

programmes on 5 Live. These definitions are aimed at providing production staff

with more direction as to the purpose of individual programmes, and at

addressing the blurring of the boundaries, which Britten identified, between

topicality and news, and between informed discussion or debate, and chat.

1.2.3. Britten‟s assessment tallies with the perception of 5 Live‟s own listeners, who are

more likely to associate the BBC licence-fee funded station with sport and

football than with news. In April 2011, BritainThinks found that 5 Live‟s listeners

estimate that just 38% of its airtime is dedicated to news (20% to „serious‟ news),

with 45% dedicated to sport. Listeners also told BritainThinks that crime, politics,

business and consumer affairs stories fall under the definition of news, but they

disagreed that TV, entertainment and celebrity stories are news.

1.2.4. Our submission accordingly sets out service licence amendments to ensure that 5

Live distinguishes itself from other networks by expanding upon the major news

headlines of the day and broadening the news agenda by covering important

stories that are neglected elsewhere in the mainstream news media. These

suggested amendments build on Britten‟s report, the findings of the BritainThinks

listener research, statements from BBC management, and comparable

requirements for news content in service licences for other BBC services such as

BBC One and BBC News.

1.3. 5 Live should cover „minority‟ sports in its daily flagship sports strands

1.3.1. In advance of this review, the Trust ruled that 5 Live‟s service licence needed to

offer “greater clarity” on the “frequency and range” of minority and secondary

sports coverage on 5 Live. Our submission proposes that 5 Live is uniquely placed

to ensure a permanent home for minority and Olympic sports on mainstream UK

radio by committing to coverage of „minority‟ sports in its daily flagship sports

strands. 5 Live Sports Extra‟s limited reach means that it is poorly placed to deliver

this output, whilst commercial radio lacks the appropriate resources and public

service remit.

1.3.2. Our proposal essentially amounts to a call for 5 Live to recapture its original public

service mission for broad sports coverage. When 5 Live launched, plans were

announced to “attract more women to sports radio by increasing coverage of

tennis, athletics and golf”, but today over 70% of its audience is male, and

listeners estimate that 67% of its sports content is football. Embarrassingly for BBC

management, in 2001 an independent panel commissioned by BBC Governors

found that 5 Live was overly obsessed with football. In response, 5 Live made

specific commitments to increase the range of sports it covers, but

disappointingly little trace of these commitments remains today.


1.3.3. Our call for 5 Live to strengthen its public service commitment to minority and

secondary sports is also supported by listeners. In listener research, 51% of 5 Live

listeners told BritainThinks that the station should devote more airtime to sports that

are less often covered by other broadcasters; only 18% disagreed. This is despite 5

Live‟s audience exhibiting a significantly above-average interest in football. Our

submission also demonstrates that extending the range of sports covered by 5

Live is likely to help it to achieve a more balanced audience. 72% of 5 Live

listeners are currently male, and the male profile has been gradually trending

upwards in recent years.

1.4. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra deliver the lowest value for money of any national

speech radio stations in the UK – with high cost areas including sports rights

1.4.1. Not only is 5 Live less distinctive than other speech networks such as Radio 4, its

annual content budget of £53.3m (its total budget is £71.8m) means that it is the

most expensive national speech radio station in the UK, on a cost per listener hour

basis, along with 5 Live Sports Extra. 5 Live‟s content budget is also over []

higher than that of talkSPORT.

1.4.2. To understand the reasons for the cost disparities between 5 Live and talkSPORT

(aside from those which are explained by differences in service objectives), we

have over the last year attempted to engage with the BBC over a radio

production costs benchmarking exercise. These attempts have proven

unsuccessful. In the absence of benchmarking data, our response sets out key

examples of areas in which the licence fee funded service is engaging in

potentially inefficient production approaches.

1.4.3. One key area where it is possible to identify inefficiency relates to expenditure on

sports rights. Our response therefore proposes that the BBC makes a meaningful

reduction in its radio sports rights spending, and commits to avoid acquiring sports

rights on an exclusive basis. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the Premier

League‟s revenue from radio rights over three years is £42m []. [] exclusive

access for the BBC to four of the Premier League‟s most attractive rights

packages (out of a total of seven available) – packages which would otherwise

be offered on a free to air basis by commercial stations.

1.5. 5 Live Sports Extra should revert to an overflow service which operates solely during

major sporting events

1.5.1. The launch of 5 Live Sports Extra in 2002 reflected BBC radio‟s success in

dominating the market for radio sports rights, with the BBC possessing more sports

rights than it could conceivably hope to put to air. The Government‟s approval

notice described the proposed service – then named as Five Live Sports Plus – as

“a distinctive, well-defined service, which will broadcast only when it can make

better use of existing sports rights already obtained for BBC radio”.

1.5.2. 5 Live Sports Extra‟s current service licence is intended to reflect the remit that

was approved a decade ago. Despite this, our response notes statements from

BBC management indicating that rights have been acquired solely for

deployment on 5 Live Sports Extra. There is also evidence that BBC management

are seeking to define a standalone identity and content offering for the overflow

sports network. We urge the BBC Trust to clarify whether 5 Live Sports Extra is being

operated in accordance with its service licence.


1.5.3. We propose that 5 Live Sports Extra should revert to an overflow service which

operates solely during major sporting events such as the Olympics – i.e. on an

infrequent ad hoc basis. Its output should be restricted to live commentary, with

repeat commentaries / highlights delivered via BBC iPlayer, where they can be

accessed by listeners on a truly on-demand basis.


2. Suggested service licence amendments

BBC Radio 5 Live – News

i. 5 Live’s news programmes should expand upon the major national and

international news headlines of the day whilst covering important stories that

are neglected elsewhere in the mainstream news media

ii. News programmes should achieve this by setting out fresh information on

something that has happened, is happening (breaking news), or is about to

happen that is of concern, relevance or interest to the 5 Live audience

iii. For content on 5 Live to be defined as news, it should be presented with the

overriding intention of bringing forward fresh information and understanding;

it should aim to analyse, simplify, and engage the listener with the

complicated, make the obscure clearer and disentangle hype and spin from

core fact

iv. News can be reporter-mediated information, informed discussion and

debate, or mediated audience interaction about this

v. To be classed as news, discussion and audience interactivity should have a

current news impetus, a clear intent to add information and a declared aim

and purpose; it should not be aimless, repetitious and unrelated to the current

news agenda

vi. Mere conversation about the topical - offering no fresh fact, analysis or

interpretation – should not be classified as news

vii. 5 Live’s news output should be distinctive and of a high quality, with a focus

on topics such as crime, politics, business and consumer affairs stories which

are clearly considered ‘news’ by 5 Live’s listeners, and a corresponding lower

emphasis on TV, entertainment and celebrity stories

viii. Original and investigative journalism should be scheduled in a prominent

timeslot on a weekly basis and widely trailed by 5 Live, in order to bring it to

the widest possible audience

ix. 5 Live should draw extensively on the BBC’s network of international and UK

journalists

x. To be classed as a 5 Live news programme, around three quarters of an

individual programme’s output should be dedicated to news content (unless

the programme has a separate stated aim and a corresponding percentage

of news content)

BBC Radio 5 Live – Sport

xi. 5 Live’s sports output should focus on live coverage, or on news and analysis

which presents fresh information and understanding of current sports events


BBC Radio 5 Live – Sport (continued)

xii. 5 Live should seek to distinguish itself from commercial sports media outlets by

minimising its reliance on studio chat and discussion, particularly about

popular sports such as football

xiii. Minority sports should make up at least 40% of 5 Live’s sports output,

comprising a minimum of 875 hours per year [level to be determined by BBC

Trust]

xiv. No single sport should be allowed to take up more than 40% of 5 Live’s sports

airtime, comprising a maximum of 875 hours per year [level to be determined

by BBC Trust]

xv. 5 Live should provide daily news and live coverage of minority sports fixtures

within its daily flagship sports programmes, including peak listening periods at

weekends

xvi. Minority sports should be defined as those sports which receive relatively low

levels of media coverage, but which can nevertheless demonstrate

meaningful levels of participation and support across the UK

xvii. As well as being scheduled at prominent times, minority sports coverage

should be properly signposted, making it easily ‘discoverable’ by listeners

xviii. 5 Live should seek to give prominence to women’s sports, as well as covering

men’s sports

xix. 5 Live should provide listeners with information about how they can

participate in the sports featured on air

xx. When faced with a choice between covering two different sports events,

one of which is likely to be covered elsewhere on UK radio, 5 Live should

incline towards the event which is less likely to receive coverage elsewhere

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

xxi. 5 Live Sports Extra should broadcast only when it can make better use of

existing sports rights already obtained for BBC radio

xxii. 5 Live Sports Extra should principally operate during major sporting events

rather than offering a regular schedule of output

xxiii. The BBC should never acquire rights specifically for use by 5 Live Sports Extra,

even if the rights are offered at low or minimal cost, or if there is no

competitive interest in the rights from commercial broadcasters

xxiv. Output should be restricted solely to live commentary, with repeat

commentaries / highlights restricted to BBC iPlayer where they can be better

accessed on a truly on-demand basis

xxv. If it is considered in the public interest for a minority sports event to be

covered on national BBC radio, then coverage should be scheduled on 5

Live


BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (continued)

xxvi. 5 Live Sports Extra should not broadcast Premier League football, except in

exceptional circumstances (such as when there is a major breaking news

event on 5 Live)

BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra – Value for money

xxvii. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra should maximise their cost efficiency by avoiding

production expenditure which is unnecessary to delivering their respective

service licences

xxviii. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra management should explore opportunities to

benchmark spending against the commercial sector

xxix. The BBC’s ongoing annual spending on radio sports rights should reflect a

meaningful reduction on 2010/11 spending levels, with the precise reduction

to be agreed with the BBC Trust

xxx. BBC radio should waive its right to exclusivity on any sports rights package

which it acquires by seeking to have exclusivity provisions removed from the

contracts it signs with rights owners


3. About UTV Media (GB)

3.1. UTV Media (GB) is part of UTV Media plc, a leading converged UK and Irish media

business with television, radio, internet and publishing interests. Our operations in

Great Britain consist of:

The UK‟s only dedicated sports radio station, and current Sony Radio

Academy UK Station of the Year (talkSPORT)

13 local radio stations with growing local audiences

The UK‟s second largest men‟s magazine (Sport)

Substantial shareholdings in seven local and regional DAB multiplexes

Co-ownership of First Radio Sales, which represents around 116 local and

digital radio stations


4. History of a „continuous news service‟

4.1. Scud FM and the clamour for 24 hour radio news

4.1.1. Despite possessing the best news-gathering operations in the world, in the 1980s

and early 1990s, the BBC had no outlet for continuous on-demand news. In

October 1987, a hurricane wreaked unanticipated devastation across the UK.

John Birt was appalled by BBC Radio 4‟s

response: “Why, when such an event had

impacted on our listeners, were we not

providing them with a continuing,

comprehensive coverage?”1

4.1.2. The BBC was more prepared when the

Gulf War started in 1991. Radio 4 News FM,

nicknamed „Scud FM‟, sprang into life and

provided dedicated coverage over the

next six weeks. “Now that the BBC has

created, instantly and effectively, an all-

news network, would it not be a tremendous waste to un-invent it?” asked Gillian

Reynolds2. The BBC agreed, identifying a 24 hour news service as a “major

priority” in an early 1990s strategic review entitled „Extending Choice‟3.

4.1.3. The BBC toyed with a number of models to deliver its continuous news vision.

Ideas included “a channel dedicated to parliament and special events” or “an

authoritative network with proper obituaries, like a serious daily newspaper,

whose backbone would be Today, PM, The World At One and The World

Tonight”4. A shortage of spectrum and a public campaign in support of Radio 4

Long Wave led the BBC to a third option: “Britain's first rolling news and sport

network” to take the place of Radio 55. The compromise model was championed

by the BBC‟s new Managing Director of Network Radio, Liz Folgan. In minutes of a

BBC Governors meeting, released to us under the Freedom of Information Act,

she is recorded as describing a “genuinely distinctive and creative editorial

concept” which would “expand the range of choice in speech radio”6.

4.1.4. Although some critics predicted that 5 Live‟s dual remit would lead to a “messy

risotto” of news and sport7, the network would be defined above all by its

commitment to news. Its Controller Jenny Abramsky promised that 5 Live would

be “always … first with the news”. The BBC‟s MD of News and Current Affairs, Tony

Hall, stressed the importance of being able to access news “whenever you like”8.

To support this vision, 5 Live would gain „news priority‟, meaning that BBC reporters

“had to offer [stories] to the rolling channel first”9. The move would ensure 5 Live

became the BBC‟s preeminent news outlet. It also gave 5 Live a unique role in UK

radio.

1 Jenny Abramsky, „Sound Matters – Lecture given at Exeter College, Oxford University‟, 31 January 2002 2 BBC Newswatch, „Radio 5 launches non-stop news‟,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/newswatch/history/noflash/html/1990s.stm 3 Andrew Culf, „Five Goes Live with New Listeners Pledge‟, The Guardian, 29 March 1994 4 Paul Donovan, „All over the place‟, Sunday Times, 27 March 1994 5 Jenny Abramsky, „How Radio 5 Live came to life‟, The Times, 30 March 1994 6 Minutes of BBC Governors board meeting, 11 October 1993 (FOI reference RFI20110629) 7 Paul Donovan, „All over the place‟, Sunday Times, 27 March 1994 8 Alexandra Frean, „Radio's new voice greets the dawn‟, The Times, 29 March 1994 9James Silver, „We‟re not about commercial prattle‟, The Guardian, 21 May 2007

"Now that the BBC has created,

instantly and effectively, an all-

news network, would it not be a

tremendous waste to un-invent

it?"

Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph, 1991


4.1.5. From day one, it was clear that 5 Live‟s news coverage would be distinctive, but

with a seriousness at its core. Abramsky spoke to devising a “new tone” for radio

news programmes, and of being “engaging and accessible”10. However, the new

station would not be “tabloid radio”, instead positioning itself “between the Daily

Mail and the Guardian11. As one of 5 Live‟s founding editors later reflected, “our

aim was to make serious news

accessible”12.

4.1.6. 5 Live‟s founders envisaged a broad news

agenda, but rooted in serious subjects.

Abramsky promised to “expand the news

agenda so that our audience gains

access to information and discussion of

health, education, technology,

entertainment news”. 5 Live would also

ensure that “stories which are important in Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast are

told to the whole of the country.”13 The station would tackle “minority issues”, with

programmes for ethnic minorities and gay and lesbian listeners14.

4.1.7. It was also decided that sports programming would include a broad focus to

ensure that it had strong appeal for women as well as men. Coverage would

include sports such as tennis, athletics and golf, and specific sports magazine

programmes were also commissioned to attract a female audience15.

4.2. “News and Sport from the BBC 24 hours a day”

4.2.1. 5 Live launched on 28 March 1994 with Jane Garvey promising “News and Sport

from the BBC 24 hours a day” – a remit that would define 5 Live‟s first decade16.

Critics and listeners were quick to identify the new station‟s editorial focus. In the

Times, Paul Donovan quoted a Manchester taxi driver‟s description of 5 Live as

“Sky [News] on the radio”. Donovan added that “As if to prove the point, it was 5

Live which at 11.58am broke the dreadful news of the school murder in

Middlesbrough just after Sky News, but before any other BBC radio network”17.

4.2.2. Another early critic wrote of “proper news properly presented, at more length

than is available elsewhere”18. In the Independent, Robert Hanks reported on the

arrival of “news whenever you want it”. He noted a clear differentiation with

Radio 4; the new station was “easygoing and intimate”, with “more time for detail

and explanation”19. Inevitably there were sceptics, with Janet Daley describing a

station “presented with the forced chattiness of highly educated people trying to

sound common” – a reflection of 5 Live‟s mission to attract a distinct audience to

Radio 420. Yet the dissenters were in the minority.

10 BBC Newswatch, „Radio 5 launches non-stop news‟,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/newswatch/history/noflash/html/1990s.stm 11 Maggie Brown, „Radio 5 takes good news cue from Martyn Lewis‟, The Independent, 17 March 1994 12 Tim Luckhurst, „Five Live - It's Radio Bloke from the BBC‟, The Independent, 18 February 2007 13 Alexandra Frean, „Radio Five denies unsporting tactics‟, The Times, 25 January 1994 14 Maggie Brown, „Radio 5 takes good news cue from Martyn Lewis‟, The Independent, 17 March 1994 15 Alexandra Frean, „Radio Five denies unsporting tactics‟, The Times, 25 January 1994 16 BBC College of Journalism, „Audio: the Launch of Radio 5 Live‟, 3 August 2009

http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/blog/2009/08/the-launch-of-radio-5-live.shtml 17 Paul Donovan, „And now for the good news‟, Sunday Times, 3 April 1994 18 Peter Barnard , „All the news that fades‟, The Times, 30 March 1994 19 Robert Hanks, „Radio newcomer gets familiar in the small hours‟, The Independent, 29 March 1994 20 Janet Daley, „Janet Daley Column‟, The Times, 31 March 1994

“Being able to tune in and get

the news whenever you like is

very important”

Tony Hall, BBC Managing

Director of News and Current Affairs, March 1994


4.2.3. Within two years, 5 Live was named Station of the Year at the Sony Radio

Academy Awards. At around the same time, 5 Live Breakfast Editor Bill Rogers

enthused that his programme had “the real feel of news radio”, with his

production team able to “get the facts faster than anyone else and get them to

the audience before anyone else can”. He cited successes including 5 Live‟s

response to the Dunblane tragedy and the assassination of Yitzak Rabin21. The

success of 5 Live‟s news output was such

that Maggie Brown suggested that “Radio

5 Live‟s success in mixing serious news and

chat” could form the basis of a new BBC

24-hour television news channel22.

4.2.4. 5 Live did occasionally falter in its first

decade. In 2001, BBC Governors identified

listener concern that “news coverage was

lightweight at times”23. However, by 2002,

Stephen Barnett was able to hail 5 Live as

a station at the vanguard of efforts to “deliver politics to young people who are

bored with it and believe its practitioners are incompetent sleazebags”24.

4.2.5. Two years later, and 13 years on from Scud FM‟s coverage of an earlier Middle

East conflict, Bob Shennan cited the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war as

providing a “complete vindication” of the original vision for 5 Live. Styling himself

as “the controller of a news radio station”, Shennan argued that 5 Live had

“come of age”, with its news coverage going well beyond the “raw feed of press

conferences and discussions” broadcast by its short-lived predecessor25. In the first

48 hours of the Iraq War, the BBC even dropped a Manchester United Champions

League match in order to focus on rolling news, with a key clash between

Liverpool and Celtic moved to 5 Live Sports Extra26.

4.3. A broader agenda

4.3.1. If 5 Live‟s first decade saw the station hone a model for accessible news

programming mixed with live sport, its

second has witnessed a widening of its

editorial focus. 5 Live‟s Statement of

Programme Policy (SoPP) for 2010-11

spoke for the first time of “balancing the

news and sport with engaging

entertainment”27. This positioning has also

been reflected on-air and in off-air

marketing. As the Guardian‟s radio

correspondent John Plunkett reported in

April 2011, “5 Live … has been transformed

under its current Controller Adrian Van

21 Stephen Armstrong, „Enjoying the highs of Radio Five: Bill Rogers, Editor, The Breakfast Programme‟, PR Week,

18 October 1996 22 Maggie Brown, „More news, not pop culture, will attract BBC viewers‟, PR Week, 14 February 1997 23 BBC Governors, BBC Annual Report 2000/01, 2001, p. 35 24 Stephen Barnett, „So long to the bloke in the suit‟, The Guardian, 17 June 2002 25 John Plunkett, „Alive and kicking‟, The Guardian, 29 March 2004 26 Damien Cahill, „Choose sport or war‟, EMC's World of Sport, 17 July 2003,

http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/worldofsport/playing_away.php 27 BBC Statements of Programme Policy 2010/11, p. 56-57

“[5 Live‟s] non-sports

programmes have been

redrawing the map of "doing"

politics on radio”

Professor Stephen Barnett, June 2002

“Both the Richard Bacon and

the Victoria Derbyshire

programme have consciously

broadened their agendas to

respond to listeners‟ interest in

[Entertainment and Comedy].”

BBC Statements of Programme Policy, 2010-11


Klaveren”, with entertainment now a key strand within its schedule28. Interviewed

by Victoria Derbyshire in September 2010, Controller Adrian Van Klaveren

explained that he had made “quite a lot of changes” to ensure that 5 Live could

“do something entertaining as well as giving people information, as well as telling

people all the latest news and sport"29.

4.3.2. The BBC‟s rationale for adopting a broader editorial agenda for 5 Live is that it

has a responsibility to cover anything of contemporary interest to the public. Van

Klaveren argues that “5 Live talks about what matters to people, how they spend

their time, the things they are interested in”. This ranges from “serious subjects” to

“how people spend their weekends and what they consume”30.

4.3.3. 5 Live‟s current direction of travel arguably predates Van Klaveren‟s arrival as

Controller. In 2007, the Telegraph reported on Jane Garvey‟s departure from 5

Live by recalling a time when the station “uniquely concentrated solely on news

and sport”31. Meanwhile, Rachel Cooke wrote in the New Stateman that 5 Live

was growing “less informative by the day” and appeared “intent on replacing

news with hearsay and serious talk with flabby banter”. Cooke added, “OK, so its

ratings are mostly up. But can it be said to be fulfulling its news remit? No, it

can't”32.

4.3.4. Also in 2007, Tim Luckhurst (one of 5 Live‟s founding editors) wrote that 5 Live had

declined “from news pioneer to a bounteously funded competitor for

commercial chat radio”. Luckhurst wrote that “Much of what is now categorised

as news is really gossip. Accessible journalism has ceded ground to

condescending populism”. A 5 Live insider described an “internal revolution”

within 5 Live, which no longer saw itself as a news station but as “sport and talk”33.

4.3.5. Although Luckhurst‟s criticism prompted accusations of sour grapes from ex-

colleagues, Bob Shennan conceded that the emergence of rolling news on other

outlets had “forced us to evolve and that has had an impact on the threshold for

news stories.” He argued that since its launch, 5 Live had suffered “a dilemma

about what to transmit when there is no continuous breaking story”, explaining

that the BBC had taken a decision to place an increased emphasis on “news that

evolves from our close, democratic and

informal relationship with our audience”34.

4.3.6. Shennan‟s premise was that audience

interaction had a role to play in 5 Live‟s

news output. Examples of this operating at

its best include the recent interview with

Kenneth Clarke which led to changes in

Government sentencing policy35. Yet there is also evidence that 5 Live is

increasingly seeking listener input on a range of more trivial subjects. In June 2011,

listeners contacted Radio 4‟s Feedback programme to highlight a number of

recent examples on Tony Livesey‟s programme, including „Have you been

28 MediaGuardian, „Media Talk podcast: Radio 5 Live, phone hacking, and Simon Cowell‟, 15 April 2011 29 BBC Radio 5 Live, Victoria Derbyshire interview with Adrian Van Klaveren, 15 September 2010 30 BBC Radio 5 Live, Victoria Derbyshire interview with Adrian Van Klaveren, 15 September 2010 31 Richard Alleyne, „Jane Garvey resigns from BBC Radio Five Live‟, Telegraph, 14 September 2007 32 Rachel Cooke, „Babble is the enemy of all good radio‟, New Statesman, 12 March 2007 33 Tim Luckhurst, „Five Live - It's Radio Bloke from the BBC‟, The Independent, 18 February 2007 34James Silver, „We‟re not about commercial prattle‟, The Guardian, 21 May 2007 35 BBC, „In full: Ken Clarke interview on rape sentencing‟, 18 May 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-

13444770

“Have you been chased by an

animal?”

5 Live interactive topic, as cited on Radio 4 Feedback, June 2011


chased by an animal?‟, „What have you had to carry recently?‟ and „Is Lady

Gaga overrated?‟36

36 BBC Radio 4, „Feedback‟, 10 June 2011


5. 5 Live should recapture its „continuous news‟ mission

5.1. „Sports and a bit of news‟

5.1.1. By 2010 it was increasingly unclear on what basis 5 Live could claim to deliver

around 75% news, as required by its service licence37. This requirement first

appeared in the station‟s 2002/03

Statement of Programme Policy but its

origins can be traced to the very

beginning of 5 Live38. At launch, 5 Live had

promised “more than 40 hours of sports

reports a week” (or 24% of the

schedule)39. In 2001 Bob Shennan claimed

that news represented “up to 80%” of 5

Live‟s output40.

5.1.2. In May 2010, we submitted analysis to BBC management which indicated that just

45% of 5 Live‟s output across weekdays and weekends consisted of news, which

we defined as „information or analysis related to recent or ongoing current affairs

events or issues‟ (including input from listeners). This rose to 48% if travel and

weather bulletins were defined as news, and to just 56% if sports news and live

sports updates were also included. The worst performing programmes included

those presented by Richard Bacon and Gabby Logan, with 36% and 42% news

respectively41.

Figure 1. 5 Live Output Breakdown

Source: UTV Media analysis, May 2010

5.1.3. Our formal submission was given short shrift by BBC management, who

concluded their response to us after seven months by supplying a written note

outlining the basis on which it defines programmes such as Richard Bacon as

37 BBC Radio Five Live Service Licence, May 2010 38 BBC Governors, BBC Annual Report 2002/03, 2003 39 Alexandra Frean, „Radio's new voice greets the dawn‟, The Times, 29 March 1994 40 Matt Wells, „Batting for Sport‟, The Guardian, 26 March 2001 41 Measuring actual annual performance over the year would be impractical, so we based our analysis on a

representative 48 hours of output.

News

45%

Travel /

weather

3%

Sport

37%

Other speech

13%

Production

2%

"A newspaper consists of just the

same number of words, whether

there be any news in it or not."

Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754)


„news programmes‟ and counts their entire minutage towards its annual news

threshold. Our impression is that this note was prepared specifically to answer our

complaint, rather than because it represented an existing tool to establish 5 Live‟s

news policy. On the basis of this methodology, the BBC argued that it was

compliant with its service licence.

5.1.4. In its ruling on our appeal the Trust acknowledged that we had raised some

“significant and valid questions about what constitutes news on 5 Live and how

broadly an individual „news‟ programme on 5 Live should go in its delivery of

news”. However the Trust was unable to uphold our complaint, on the basis that

“by the current method of reporting and definition used” (i.e. classifying the

entirety of programmes such as Richard Bacon as news) 5 Live was achieving 75%

news each year.

5.1.5. Although we disagree that 5 Live delivers 75% news, we sympathise with the

Trust‟s ruling, since at present the 5 Live service licence does not define what is

and is not acceptable for inclusion in news programmes. In fact as we explain in

sub-section ‎5.5, 5 Live‟s service licence contains considerably less clarity about

expectations of the service, and fewer annual quantitative commitments, than

those of many other BBC services. Furthermore, our complaint revealed that there

is not a culture of carefully defined news delivery within 5 Live. BBC management

do not appear to have defined their expectations of production staff in terms of

news content on individual programmes42.

5.1.6. The Trust‟s conclusion that the 5 Live service review would need to provide

“greater clarity” in terms of news has prompted us to suggest amendments to 5

Live‟s service licence. Our overarching proposal is that 5 Live‟s news programmes

should expand upon the major national and international news headlines of the

day whilst covering important stories that are neglected elsewhere in the

mainstream news media. This proposal, together with supporting detail, is

presented in Section ‎2 of this response and explained below. We outline four sets

of analysis to demonstrate why the Trust should accept these amendments:

Independent polling conducted by BritainThinks reveals that 5 Live‟s own

listeners no longer see it as a news service; they also believe that it should

do more serious news

A third-party assessment of 5 Live‟s output by Robin Britten reveals that the

threshold for news in BBC „news programmes‟ is too low, against any

objective definition of news, setting out some suggested minimum

expectations of 5 Live news programmes

5 Live no longer occupies distinctive ground within the speech radio

market – it has abandoned its original unique mission of providing universal

access to news on the radio whenever listeners want it in pursuit of the

maximum audience reach

The news requirements set out in 5 Live‟s service licence are currently

inadequately aligned with those of other leading networks for BBC news

coverage, such as BBC One and BBC News

5.1.7. The Trust‟s scrutiny of our complaint was welcomed by observers such as Maggie

Brown, who said “it‟s been pretty clear to those of us who have been listening to

Radio 5 since it began that it has slipped a long way from its original promise. It is

actually meant to be doing 75% news and even if you define that loosely it‟s

42 BBC Trust, „General Appeals Finding‟, April 2011


pretty clear that it‟s actually not living up to what it should be doing.” Brown

added “I think it‟s gone for ratings. I think it‟s lost its way”43.

5.1.8. Amending BBC Radio 5 Live‟s service licence as we propose below can spark a

change in culture within 5 Live to coincide with its move to new studios in Salford.

Our suggested changes would leave no ambiguity about 5 Live‟s objectives.

Rather than chasing ratings or competing with commercial stations, 5 Live would

gain a distinctive public service focus imbued with the values of the BBC‟s

„Quality First‟ strategy.

5.2. 5 Live‟s listeners believe it should do more serious news

5.2.1. In May 2011, 5 Live‟s Head of Marketing revealed that according to the station‟s

own market research, “People think that we just do sports and a bit of news”. She

highlighted this finding to justify a new

marketing campaign showcasing the

range of other topics now covered by 5

Live44. This insight also backs up the findings

of independent research undertaken by

BritainThinks which found that 5 Live‟s

listeners see it as a sport station rather than

a station delivering 75% news, but that

they have an appetite for more serious news.

5.2.2. For its „audience perspective‟ on 5 Live, which was commissioned by UTV Media

as part of this review, BritainThinks polled 1,000 BBC Radio 5Live listeners online

between 1st & 6th April 2011. All listened to Radio 5 Live for at least 1 hour per

week. Data was weighted to be representative of all Radio 5 Live listeners in terms

of age, gender and SEG. The complete report and findings comprise separate

annexes to this submission and have already been supplied to the BBC Trust.

BritainThinks‟ key findings were as follows:

BBC Radio 5 Live listeners are over five times more likely to associate the

station with sport than news (when asked the first word that comes to

mind when thinking of BBC Radio 5 Live, 33% said sport, against 6% who

said news)

On average, listeners estimate that 38% of broadcast time on BBC Radio 5

Live is dedicated to news, which is around half of its licence requirement

of 75%

Listeners estimate that 45% of airtime is dedicated to sport – more than the

38% they estimate is dedicated to news

Moreover, only half (52%) of the total airtime dedicated to news on 5 Live -

i.e. less than 20% of its content overall - is thought to be „serious news‟

content

Half (49%) of 5 Live listeners agree that, given that it is funded by the

licence fee, it should focus more on serious news stories. 22% disagree.45

43 MediaGuardian, „Media Talk podcast: Radio 5 Live, phone hacking, and Simon Cowell‟, 15 April 2011 44 Ariel, „Cameras follow news and sport network all this week‟, 21 March 2011 45 BritainThinks, „BBC Radio 5 Live: An Audience Perspective‟, April 2011

“News is what somebody

somewhere wants to suppress;

all the rest is advertising.”

Lord Northcliffe (1865-1922)


5.2.3. BritainThinks poll also enabled scrutiny of BBC management to categorise certain

programmes as news programmes which our 2010 analysis indicated had low

levels of news content. BritainThinks found that listeners clearly consider some of 5

Live‟s non-sport programmes to be „news programmes‟. As Figure 2 shows, 5 Live‟s

most listened-to programmes are Breakfast and Drive, and a large majority of

listeners consider these to be „news programmes‟.

Figure 2. Listener classifications of 5 Live programmes as „news programmes‟

Would you mainly consider the following programmes to be a news programme, or another sort of

programme?

* Stephen Nolan, Up All Night and Tony Livesey assessed collectively as ‘Overnight programming’

Source: Britain Thinks April 2011 / RAJAR analysis (Q1 2011)

5.2.4. As this data shows, other programmes considered to be „news programmes‟ by a

majority of 5 Live‟s listeners include Pienaar‟s Politics, 5 Live Investigates and

91%

91%

85%

79%

73%

67%

49%

47%

35%

32%

32%

32%

20%

17%

14%

9%

9%

15%

21%

27%

33%

51%

53%

65%

68%

68%

68%

80%

83%

86%

5 Live Breakfast (Mon - Fri 06.00 - 09.00)

Morning Reports / Wake Up To Money

(Mon - Sun 05.00 - 06.00)

Pienaar's Politics (Sun 19.00 - 20.00)

5 Live Drive (Mon - Fri 16.00 - 19.00)

Weekend Breakfast (Sat 06.00 - 09.00, Sun

06.00 - 08.30)

5 Live Investigates (Sun 21.00 - 22.00)

5 Live Breakfast - Your Call (Mon - Fri 09.00

- 10.00)

Victoria Derbyshire (10.00-12.00 Mon - Fri)

Gabby Logan (12.00-14.00 Mon - Fri)

Tony Livesey (Mon - Thurs 22.30-01.00) *

Up All Night (Mon - Sun 01.00-05.00) *

Stephen Nolan (Fri - Sun 22.00 - 01.00) *

Richard Bacon (Mon - Thurs 14.00 - 16.00)

Fighting Talk (Sat 11.00 - 12.00)

Danny Bacon / Christian O'Connell (Sat

09.00 - 11.00)

News Not News Weekly Reach

715,000

545,000

1,170,000

727,000

598,000

867,000

1,432,000

1,493,000

1,298,000

116,000

1,080,000

2,032,000

248,000

561,000

2,412,000


Morning Reports. However, the times at which these three programmes are

scheduled (Sunday evenings and 5am weekday mornings) means that listeners

are much less likely to listen to them. In Q1 2011, just 116,000 people heard 5 Live

Investigates (Sundays 9-10pm) every week. In other words, just 1.7% of 5 Live‟s

total audience (less than one in fifty 5 Live listeners) currently listens to its main

investigative journalism strand. This is by far the lowest reach for any single

programming strand on 5 Live.

5.2.5. The finding that hardly any 5 Live listeners hear its investigative journalism

programming should be considered alongside one of the key findings from our

May 2010 analysis of 5 Live‟s output. We found that 5 Live‟s investigative

journalism was not only poorly scheduled, it was also never signposted in the large

number of programming trails carried during the 48 hours of output we monitored

as part of our service licence complaint to management. Instead, programming

trails promoted football coverage, ways to listen to 5 Live, Formula 1 and the

BBC‟s Sport Relief promotion. We surmised that this reflected a low prioritisation

given to bringing original stories to air on 5 Live.

5.2.6. By way of comparison, the programming strand with the highest weekly reach on

5 Live is 5 Live Sport on weekday evenings (Monday – Friday, 7 – 10.30pm / 10pm),

with a reach of 2.8m (42.2% of 5 Live‟s total weekly audience). The single

programme with the highest reach across the week is the Saturday edition of 5

Live Sport, which attracts 2.4m listeners between 12.00 and 17.15 (36.4% of 5 Live‟s

total weekly audience).

5.2.7. Although programmes such as Breakfast and 5 Live Investigates scored highly for

news, at other places in 5 Live‟s schedule, it is less clear that individual

programme strands comprise „news programmes‟. In general, listeners were

much less likely to consider that 5 Live‟s weekday daytime and overnight

schedules consist of news programmes. That only 20% of listeners consider Richard

Bacon‟s programme to be a „news programme‟ raises particularly significant

issues for the BBC, given that the BBC classifies it as one for the purposes of

reporting on its service licence compliance to the BBC Trust – a position which

now appears untenable. Similarly, only 32% of listeners thought that 5 Live‟s

overnight programming consisted of news programmes.

5.2.8. Comparing the BritainThinks findings against RAJAR audience data for 5 Live also

reveals a range of significant insights:

The programmes defined as „news programmes‟ by 5 Live management46

currently reach 72% of 5 Live‟s weekly audience, and account for 65% of 5

Live‟s listening hours.

However, those programmes which around half (>45%) or more of 5 Live‟s

listeners define as „news programmes‟47 only reach 63% of 5 Live listeners

every week, and account for just 43% of 5 Live‟s weekly listening hours.

46 Programmes defined as „news programmes‟ by 5 Live management at at 25 February 2011 comprised Up All

Night, Morning Reports, Wake Up to Money, Breakfast inc Your Call, Victoria Derbyshire, Gabby Logan /

Shelagh Fogarty, Richard Bacon, Drive, Tony Livesey, Mayo and Kermode, Stephen Nolan, Weekend Breakfast,

Saturday Edition, Kate Silverton, Pienaar‟s Politics, On the Money and 5 Live Investigates 47 Programmes which at least 45% of 5 Live listeners defined as „news programmes‟ comprise Victoria

Derbyshire, Your Call, 5 Live Investigates, Weekend Breakfast, Drive, Pienaar‟s Politics, Morning Reports / Wake

Up to Money and Breakfast. 5 Live Money (Sun 20.00 –21.00), which was not assessed by BritainThinks, has also

been included in this group.


5 Live‟s peaktime programmes, Breakfast and Drive, are the only two

widely listened-to programmes of 5 Live which are defined as „news

programmes‟ by at least 75% of listeners. Together, these two programmes

reach 48% of 5 Live listeners every week, but they only account for 25% of

weekly listening hours.

The programming which reaches the highest proportion of 5 Live‟s

audience every week is not 5 Live‟s news output. In fact, its sport

programmes attract a slightly higher weekly reach – 73% of 5 Live listeners

– despite comprising less than a quarter of weekly minutage. 5 Live‟s sport

programmes also attract a disproportionate volume of listening,

accounting for 32% of total listening hours48.

5.2.9. These findings are showcased in Figure 3.

Figure 3. More people hear 5 Live‟s sport programmes every week than hear its news

programmes

Source: BBC management / Britain Thinks April 2011 / RAJAR analysis (Q1 2011)

5.2.10. BritainThinks‟ analysis also provided a clear indication of the type of content that

a programme needs to include to be classified as a news programme.

BritainThinks found that crime, politics, business and consumer affairs stories are

clearly considered „news‟, whilst TV, entertainment and celebrity stories are

considered „not news‟ by a clear majority of 5 Live‟s audience (see Figure 4).

5.2.11. Interestingly, the former topics have been at the heart of 5 Live‟s output since it

launched, whereas the latter have only been emphasised more recently. BBC

48 Sport programmes are scheduled at the following times: Mon – Thurs 19.00-22.30, Fri 19.00-22.00, Sat 12.00 –

20.00, Sun 08.30-09.30 and 12.00 – 19.00

72%

63%

48%

73% 65%

43%

25% 32%

Defined as 'news

programme' by BBC

management

Considered to be a 'news

programme' by at least

45% of 5 Live listeners

Breakfast and Drive Sport programmes

% weekly reach amongst 5 Live audience % 5 Live total listening hours


Governors board minutes from 17 March 1994 – days before the launch of the

new network – describe 5 Live‟s daytime output at launch as including “a daily

round-up of European news, as well as regular features on health, science, the

environment and natural history” (all scheduled in daytime), “coverage of

Parliament”, “extensive business coverage throughout the day” and “guidance

on personal finance”. Across the schedule there were slots for regional, UK and

international news output, and even “a weekly documentary from Scotland”49.

There is no mention of entertainment, TV or celebrity coverage.

Figure 4. Listeners have clear ideas about what types of content they would classify as

„news‟ on a BBC radio station

Q. Imagine each of the following were being broadcast on a BBC radio station. Which of the following types of

output would you classify as 'news'?

Source: BritainThinks April 2011

5.2.12. A further significant finding from this research on listener definitions of news is that

just under half (46%) of 5 Live‟s listeners believe that a “phone-in about politics,

49 Minutes of BBC Governors board meeting, 17 March 1994 (FOI reference RFI20110629)

96%

94%

93%

88%

88%

78%

78%

73%

69%

61%

52%

46%

46%

37%

35%

34%

30%

20%

20%

17%

17%

16%

16%

10%

4%

6%

7%

12%

12%

22%

22%

27%

31%

39%

48%

54%

54%

63%

65%

66%

70%

80%

80%

83%

83%

84%

84%

90%

Details of a crime committed in the UK

Information about international politics or current events

Information about UK politics and current events

City, business and financial issues

Sports headlines

Traffic and travel update

Weather forecast

Live update from a sports event

Interview with a politician

Consumer affairs issues (e.g. personal finance, spending …

Human interest stories (e.g. real life stories about …

Live sports commentary

Phone-in about politics, crime or current events

Preview of a sports fixture

Interview with a sportsperson

Music, book or film review

Entertainment stories

Phone-in about sporting events

Stories about celebrities

A funny or interesting story from a presenter

Interview with a celebrity

A funny or interesting story from a listener

Discussion about what was on TV last night

Comedy

News

Not news


crime or current events” is news. This also tallies with a decision by just over 50% of

listeners to categorise Breakfast – Your Call as „not news‟. Both Robin Britten‟s

report and the 2010 UTV Media analysis generally took the decision to categorise

such material as „news‟, in recognition that some phone-in material can consist of

news. However these findings clearly reveal that it is inappropriate to categorise

all phone-in material as news – even if it focuses on serious news subjects.

5.2.13. This is relevant because 5 Live management‟s current definition of appears to

categorise all interactivity about news topics as „news‟. In the one-page

document presented to UTV during our formal complaint about 5 Live‟s service

licence compliance, 5 Live management imply that all audience interactivity

should be classified as news, citing the service licence requirement that the

station should “encourage listeners to interact with the service and share their

opinions for example via phone-ins, text messages and emails”. BritainThinks

findings provide a clear indication that this blanket approach is unjustified. We

develop this point further in the following sub-section of this submission.

5.3. Independent academic assessment of 5 Live‟s output has shown that the threshold

for news in BBC „news programmes‟ is too low, against any objective definition of

news

5.3.1. To further inform our submission to this review, UTV Media commissioned an

independent academic assessment of 5 Live‟s output from Robin Britten, a former

News Editor at BBC Radio 5 Live who is now a visiting lecturer in journalism at the

University of Staffordshire. Britten was

selected on the basis of his reputation as

a respected news practitioner who is now

recognised as an academic expert in

journalism.

5.3.2. Britten listened to a complete week‟s

output from Monday 9th – Sunday 15th

May and drew independent conclusions

about the delivery of news. This week was

selected to be representative of normal

output. It is worth noting that the week in

question fell during the period of 5 Live service review consultation – i.e.

management will have been aware of the likelihood of heightened public

scrutiny during this period. The complete report is supplied as an annex to this

submission.

5.3.3. Robin Britten‟s report had two objectives: to establish what percentage of 5 Live‟s

output could be considered to be news, and to offer conclusions as to the

minimum expectations of programmes defined by 5 Live as „news programmes‟.

It is worth noting that whilst Britten included 5 Live‟s sport programmes in his news

content analysis, he restricted his detailed conclusions and recommendations to

5 Live‟s news programmes.

5.3.4. Britten found that:

The percentage of news across the week was 50.1%, which increased to

58.9% if the sport summaries broadcast at the top and bottom of the hour

and all trails were also included.

“If the BBC won‟t define news,

can production teams be clear

about what they are

producing?”

Robin Britten, Visiting Lecturer in

Journalism, University of Staffordshire, July 2011


On individual weekdays, the percentage of news ranged between 54.7%

and 58.4%, or between 58.6% and 67.5% if sport summaries and trails were

included.

On Saturday and Sunday, the percentage of content which was news

was 30% and 39% respectively, or 39% and 48% including sport summaries

and trails50.

5.3.5. To produce these findings, Britten defined news as “information about something

that has happened, is happening, or is about to happen” (he produced a further

definition, setting out suggested minimum expectations of 5 Live‟s news

programmes, at the conclusion of the project). His categorisation of news content

included discussion, analysis, debate, and audience interactivity, as well as

menus/openers stabs/stings, weather and travel.

5.3.6. Britten mentions in a number of instances that he gave 5 Live the “benefit of the

doubt” in categorising output as news, recognising that news definitions are not

currently defined for BBC production staff. Non-news output was assigned to one

of two other categories: Sport and Magazine / Chat, with the latter defined as

“items that have no current news topicality, or are simply interviews with celebs

selected off the PR publicity circuit”.

5.3.7. Based on his analysis, Britten offered the following conclusions:

There is a desperate need for clearer definition of what comprises news for

5 Live.

If the BBC won‟t define news, can production teams be clear about what

they are producing?

There is a growing confusion between topicality and news.

There is a growing blurring of distinction between informed discussion or

debate, and chat. And this blurring is being built into programme formats.

5.3.8. As well as reviewing news content across 5 Live‟s schedules in totality, Britten also

analysed individual programmes, some of which rated highly for news.

Quantitative conclusions are set out in Figure 5.

50 The decision to calculate a higher proportion of news content which includes all trails reflects the

methodological approach used by the BBC in answering our complaint in June 2010. This should not be taken

as an indication that Britten necessarily agrees that „trails‟ can be classified as news.


Figure 5. Robin Britten analysis of news content within individual 5 Live programmes

Source: Robin Britten analysis for UTV Media (GB), July 2011. Analysis based on 9 – 16 May 2011. Excludes sport

summaries and trails.

5.3.9. Britten‟s individual programme analysis was also backed by qualitative insights.

Britten found that 5 Live Breakfast and Drive “ooze news”, with news clearly “their

starting point” and “what they are there for”. These programmes are also praised

for using “banter/chat/interactivity” to “enhance … their core purpose;

presenting accessible, digestible comprehensible news”. Elsewhere, Victoria

Derbyshire‟s programme is described – the Monday Music Review aside – as

having “news stamped through its core”.

5.3.10. At other points in the schedule, Britten

found that it was less clear that individual

programmes could be described as „news

programmes‟. Richard Bacon‟s

programme is described as having “by far

the lowest news content of the daytime

output”, which is attributed to the fact that

“the spine of the programme is the

celebrity guest interview”, with guests

apparently “straight off the celebrity PR

circuit” and using their appearances on 5

Live as a means of “plugging their wares”.

Britten surmised that this “can be very effective light entertainment. But it is not

news.”

76.1%

83.0%

64.9%

21.1%

79.4%

58.7%

4.1%

11.5%

10.8%

5.0%

40.5%

6.0%

92.0%

9.0%

4.0%

89.1%

91.8%

8.0%

54.10%

Breakfast (06.00 - 10.00/09.00/08.30 Mon - Sun)

Victoria Derbyshire (10.00 - 12.00 Mon - Fri)

Sheila Fogarty (12.00 - 14.00 Mon - Fri)

R Bacon / Mayo & Kermode (14.00 - 16.00 Mon - Fri)

Drive (16.00 - 19.00 Mon - Fri)

T Livesey / S Nolan (22.00/22.30 - 01.00 Mon - Fri)

5 Live Sport weekdays (19.00 - 22.00/22.30 Mon - Fri)

Danny Baker / Christian O'Connell (09.00 - 11.00 Sat)

Fighting Talk (11.00 - 12.00 Sat)

5 Live Sport Saturday (12.00 - 18.00 Sat)

Saturday Edition (20.00 - 21.00 Sat)

Sportsweek (08.30 - 09.30 Sun)

Tony Livesey Sunday Morning (09.30 - 11.00 Sun)

The Back End of Next Week (11.00 - 12.00 Sun)

5 Live Sport Sunday (12.00 - 19.00 Sun)

Pienaar's Politics (19.00 - 20.00 Sun)

On the Money (20.00 - 21.00 Sun)

Men's Hour (21.00 - 22.00 Sun)

Up All Night (01.00 - 05.00 Mon - Sun)

“I‟m not sure that a lot of

people would disagree that

Richard Bacon‟s programme,

entertaining as it is, does not

necessarily qualify as a news

programme – hard news or soft

news.”

John Plunkett, MediaGuardian podcast, April 2011


5.3.11. It is worth noting that Britten‟s analysis of slots such as 2-4pm on weekdays focuses

not on the identity of the presenter, but the editorial content of the programme.

Although Richard Bacon arrived at 5 Live with a background in music and

entertainment presenting, his predecessor Simon Mayo also lacked journalistic

experience before joining 5 Live. Yet in the BBC‟s 2001 Annual Report,

management hailed Mayo‟s afternoon programme as having brought “a new

approach to politics coverage”51. Britten‟s analysis identifies no explicit

weaknesses with Richard Bacon as a presenter of a news programme, so much

as with his programme‟s editorial focus – regular features answer listeners‟ DIY

queries or provide a platform for complaints about everyday life (the „Moan In‟).

5.3.12. Elsewhere, Britten‟s assessment of individual 5 Live programmes highlights the

dominance of “chat” on Tony Livesey‟s programme, adding “by far the majority

of subjects listeners are encouraged to call about are hardly even tenuously

related to the current news agenda, let alone directly related”. Subjects cited

include “What‟s your most pathetic injury?” and “Where have you been that‟s

later turned up on TV?” Britten concludes that “The time spent talking about them

can only be classified as chat”.

5.3.13. Britten also identified issues with Sheila Fogarty‟s midday programme, with items

such as the Five Life panel offering “subject matter … which is so broad, so non-

news tied that it simply can‟t be categorized as news”. Britten adds that the

midday programme exhibits an “increasing reliance on turning to others in the

studio to chat and fill time. Chat is

beginning to take the place of news.”

5.3.14. Britten‟s commentary on Up All Night

identifies the dilemma which lies at the

heart of much of 5 Live‟s output, but also

begins to point towards a solution. Britten

finds that “for the most part their starting

point is news; interesting and important

stories from around the world”. However

he adds that “even Up All Night is starting

to produce fixed slots that can in no way

be seen as news, however tenuously one interprets news”, citing the Virtual Book

Club, Dr. Carl, a half hour on new music, film discussion and World Music charts.

5.3.15. Britten‟s conclusion, based on Up All Night, is that 5 Live‟s delivery of news is

determined by the “fixed slots” that are scheduled within individual „news

programmes‟. Britten explains that “Spot news can be hard to come by. But news

there always is. And it is certainly accessible through a newsgathering operation

as large the BBC‟s”. He criticises 5 Live for scheduling fixed slots which “by their

very nature are never going to be anything more than chat-based”. Britten adds

“Perhaps the lesson is this: have news - backed by a clear station view of what

news is - as your starting point and as likely as not you will produce it. And it won‟t

come at the cost of sacrificing some of the things that station holds dear; humour,

interactivity, originality of editorial treatment”.

5.3.16. A number of additional qualitative insights are discernible from Britten‟s analysis,

from the detailed appendices to his report:

51 BBC Governors, BBC Annual Report 2001/02, 2002, p. 27

“By far the majority of subjects

listeners are encouraged to call

about are hardly even tenuously

related to the current news

agenda”

Robin Britten on Tony Livesey‟s programme, July 2011


Saturday Edition and Weekend Breakfast – the two main „news

programmes‟ scheduled on Saturdays when output is otherwise

dominated by Sport – have relatively low news content.

For the former, Britten classified only 40.5% of content as „news‟. For the

latter, Britten outlined a range of qualitative comments, highlighting a

“definable difference” between Weekend Breakfast and other 5 Live

news programmes, with a higher volume of “chat” and a delay in

“getting to hard news stories”. On Saturday 14 May, the presenters told

listeners “We‟re talking FA Cup final all morning now”. Out of the eight

other stories covered, three were described “soft” news: a film showing

in a village, the Beckhams‟ choice of godparents and the Eurovision

Song Contest.

Men‟s Hour largely consists of a “variety of non-news chat-based items”

aimed at a male audience

5 Live‟s trails are predominantly about non-news subjects. Britten

records them as having promoted the likes of Tony Livesey‟s

programme, football output, BBC One‟s The Apprentice, Radio 2,

Formula 1 coverage, Sheila Fogarty‟s programme, 5 Live‟s digital

platforms and the BBC Trust‟s service review. As highlighted above,

Britten took the decision to present a „news‟ figure for 5 Live which

includes trails, since in their 2010 response to our complaint, the BBC

classified trails as news. Britten‟s record of trail topics indicates to us

that this approach is flawed.

5.3.17. Based on his analysis of news content Britten has developed a more detailed

recommendation as to appropriate definitions for 5 Live news content. This is set

out below and is also built into our suggested service licence amendments, as set

out in section ‎2 and at the end of this section:


Figure 6. Robin Britten recommendation on 5 Live news definitions.

5.3.18. Robin Britten‟s recommendation is given further explanation and context in his

report, but there are a couple of key points worth emphasising:

Britten‟s core recommendation is that news content is defined by its

intention – and specifically whether it is intended to bring forward „fresh

information and understanding‟.

Britten‟s report also reflects the finding by BritainThinks (referenced at

‎5.2.12 - ‎5.2.13) that audience interaction items such as phone-ins

cannot always be classified as news. Britten accordingly recommends

that “to be classed as news, discussion should have a current news

impetus, a clear intent to add information and a declared aim and

purpose; it should not be aimless, repetitious and unrelated to the

current news agenda”.

More than anything 5 Live needs a clear and unambiguous definition of what the BBC considers

to be news and, based on my analysis, I am proposing the following:

News is:

Fresh information on something that has happened, is happening (breaking news), or is about

to happen that is of concern, relevance or interest to the 5 Live audience.

News can be reporter-mediated information, informed discussion and debate, or mediated

audience interaction about this.

But for content on 5 Live to be defined as news, whether it comes from the lighter

entertainment end of the spectrum or the more serious realm of public or international affairs, it

should be presented with the overriding intention of bringing forward fresh information and

understanding; it should aim to analyse, simplify, and engage the listener with the complicated,

make the obscure clearer and disentangle hype and spin from core fact.

To be classed as news, discussion and audience interactivity should have a current news

impetus, a clear intent to add information and a declared aim and purpose; it should not be

aimless, repetitious and unrelated to the current news agenda.

Mere conversation about the topical - offering no fresh fact, analysis or interpretation - is not

news.

To be classed as a 5 Live news programme, around three quarters of an individual

programme‟s output should be dedicated to news content (unless the programme has a

separate stated aim and a corresponding percentage of news content).


5.4. 5 Live‟s abandonment of its continuous news remit means that it no longer

occupies distinctive ground within the wider radio market

5.4.1. The third reason why we have proposed amendments to 5 Live‟s service licence

in the area of news is that it will allow the station to regain the distinctive position it

once occupied within the overall radio market.

5.4.2. A desire to deliver something unique was at the heart of the planning process for

BBC Radio 5 Live prior to its launch in March 1994. Indeed recently disclosed BBC

Governors minutes reveal that the decision to launch the station with just six

months notice was taken to ensure that the new network was up and running

“before any commercial company was able to offer a competing service”. A

new national commercial speech licence (now held by talkSPORT) was due to be

awarded in 1994, and it is recorded that BBC Governors noted “the likelihood that

if the BBC did not start a news channel, someone else would”, such as London

News Radio (now LBC)52.

5.4.3. Accordingly, when 5 Live was launched in 1994, it did so with a news and sport

format that was unique: “Nobody else does it,” said Controller Jenny Abramsky53.

With a gap in the market for a national radio news service now no longer existing,

the successful applicant for the national

commercial speech licence that

launched in February 1995 was Talk Radio

UK, offering a format which distinguished

itself from 5 Live by its focus on phone-ins

and „shock jocks‟. So it was that a decade

later, the BBC‟s submission to the BBC

Charter Review was able to boast that

“Radio Five Live‟s unique blend of news,

current affairs and sport distinguishes it

from commercial competitors”54.

5.4.4. Yet today, public pronouncements by BBC management indicate that they now

see a new, less distinctive role for 5 Live – as a „talk radio‟ network. In November

2009, the current Controller of 5 Live even argued that the BBC has a responsibility

to develop talk radio in UK, on the basis that “the ventures into this by most of

commercial radio haven‟t been very successful”. At about this time, a new

television marketing campaign was launched for 5 Live with the tagline „Now

We‟re Talking‟, which was described as “trying to surprise people a bit” by

showing them “what else 5 Live can offer” – namely “very high quality

broadcasters talking about things that matter to you” 55.

5.4.5. With LBC and talkSPORT both highly successful stations, we reject both the

premise that commercial talk radio is unsuccessful, and the conclusion that the

BBC has a responsibility to grow the talk radio market by replicating its output. As

Figure 7 shows, the BBC currently dominates UK speech radio as no other market

in which it has a presence, suggesting that any strategic adjustment to its current

speech radio offering should be focused on delivering enhanced – rather than

diminished – distinctiveness.

52 Minutes of BBC Governors board meeting, 11 October 1993 (FOI reference RFI20110629) 53 Maggie Brown, „A station of two halves‟, The Guardian, 7 August 2000 54 BBC, „Review of the BBC‟s Royal Charter: Response to Green Paper‟, May 2005, p. 33 55 Radio Academy, „Adrian Van Klaveren In Conversation‟, November 2009,

http://www.radioacademy.org/events/london-events/london-events-2009/adrian-van-klaveren-in-

conversation/

“Radio Five Live‟s unique blend

of news, current affairs and sport

distinguishes it from commercial

competitors”

BBC Charter Review submission,

May 2005


Figure 7. The BBC dominates UK speech radio as no other UK media market

Source: BARB, Jan 10 – Jan 16 2011; Hitwise, w/e 22 January 2011; RAJAR, Q3 2010; Ofcom report on proposed

acquisition of BSkyB by News Corp, Dec 2010

5.4.6. The shift beyond ensuring that listeners are able to access news on the radio

whenever they want it to a broader „talk radio‟ format means that 5 Live is no

longer distinctive. For instance, there are times that 5 Live now offers very similar

programmes to either talkSPORT or LBC 97.3, such as on daytime afternoons,

when Richard Bacon‟s show offers a similar mix of studio chat, celebrity interviews

and audience interaction to Hawksbee and Jacobs on talkSPORT.

5.4.7. Another sign of diminished distinctiveness is that talkSPORT now regularly finds itself

competing with 5 Live for presenter talent. []. When Mike Parry left talkSPORT in

March 2011, he was immediately offered a series of presenting shifts on 5 Live. In

an apparent effort to appeal to talkSPORT listeners – who had enjoyed Parry‟s on-

air persona as a larger-than-life entertainer with an ability to spark debate with his

outlandish opinions – 5 Live made considerable efforts to publicise these

appearances.

5.4.8. Prior to launching 5 Live, minutes of a BBC Governors meeting reveal that the BBC

was keen to avoid duplication with other radio stations (such as Radio 4),

recognising that this would erode choice and plurality for licence fee payers.

Today, 5 Live‟s talk strategy makes it much more likely that it will take listeners

away from stations like talkSPORT and LBC 97.3, undermining commercial radio‟s

ability to fund compelling content of its own and make inroads into the BBC‟s

long-held dominant position in speech radio.

5.4.9. Figure 8 outlines the traditional differences between BBC-style „built format‟

speech radio and commercial-style talk radio. These differences reflect the

difference in budgets between BBC and commercial radio stations, as well as a

difference in editorial focus and style. With 5 Live‟s move away from continuous

news and greater reliance on phone-ins and audience interaction, it is

increasingly duplicating the approaches pioneered within the commercial sector,

and so diluting the distinctiveness of what commercial networks are able to offer.

34%

3%

49%

85%

37%

TV Online Music radio Speech radio Multiplatform news


Figure 8. BBC-style „built format‟ speech radio vs commercial-style talk radio

BBC-style „built format‟

speech radio

Commercial-style talk radio

Presentation style Journalistic; authoritative Personality-led

Running order Dense; highly structured Loose; more fluid

Editorial direction Broadly producer-led Broadly listener-led

News story count Very high Low - medium

Editorial style Focused; measured Discursive; passionate

Editorial focus News and current affairs;

serious tone

Mix of news / general interest

topics; lighter tone with use of

humour and entertainment

Journalism Shapes news agenda and

breaks new stories

Reflects and follows news

agenda

Resources Large production teams;

extensive news resource

Small production teams; more

limited news resource

On-air guests Expert; authoritative Mix of expert and more left-

field / controversial

5.4.10. The reasons for 5 Live‟s editorial shift towards a talk-style format are not

completely clear. Although in 2007 Bob Shennan argued that 5 Live has

responded to developments within the wider news market (which had

apparently seen 5 Live lose its „news priority‟ status), the reality is that the radio

landscape has remained relatively unchanged during 5 Live‟s lifetime, with the

exception that Talk Radio UK moved to distinguish itself further from 5 Live in 2000

through its rebrand as talkSPORT. This leaves the impression that 5 Live‟s move

towards „talk radio‟ output has arisen from a desire to maximise audience; 5 Live‟s

2010/11 Statement of Programme Policy stated that its top challenge was to

„attract new listeners‟56. The result has been to raise questions about what 5 Live‟s

purpose now is, and whether a distinctive role still exists for the station.

5.4.11. Our proposed service licence amendments would clarify 5 Live‟s original remit as

a station for anyone interested in news, with its news output exhibiting strong

journalistic values but also continuing to be distinguished from that of Radio 4 by

virtue of its accessibility and continuous nature. By returning to a format which has

news at its core and is characterised by a focus on fresh information and

perspectives about major news events or important unreported stories, rather

than replaying existing perspectives or covering trivial subjects, 5 Live can

rediscover a distinctive role for itself within the wider radio market.

56 BBC, „Performance against public commitments 2010/11‟, July 2011


5.5. The news requirements set out in 5 Live‟s service licence are currently inadequately

aligned with those of other leading networks for BBC news coverage, such as BBC

One and BBC News

5.5.1. Compared to 5 Live, other BBC flagship news services have much clearer

requirements for news set out in their service licences. This suggests a clear

precedent for the type of stretching amendments we propose to 5 Live‟s service

licence. Indeed our proposal that 5 Live should expand upon the major national

and international news headlines of the day whilst covering important stories that

are neglected elsewhere in the mainstream news media borrows heavily from

language which already appears in the service licence of the BBC‟s rolling TV

news channel – BBC News.

5.5.2. Significantly, 50% of BBC News‟s audience is currently from the C2DE

demographics, which is above the UK population average of 45%. Conversely just

33% of 5 Live‟s audience is C2DE – i.e. below the UK population average. BBC

News also has a much more even gender

split, with women constituting 42% of its

audience, against 28% for 5 Live. This

clearly demonstrates that BBC services

offering “broad, varied, serious and

analytical news” 24 hours a day can

appeal to a broad audience57.

The BBC News service licence

states that it should “offer a service of regular updates on breaking stories

and there should be significant live coverage. But the distinctiveness of

BBC News Channel should lie in its ambition to offer a broad, varied,

serious and analytical news agenda with strong coverage of the UK, from

across the UK and from the rest of the world including Europe”. This

highlights the importance of BBC news output being distinctive.

BBC News is urged to go “beyond the headlines and [bring] important

stories to air that do not receive widespread coverage elsewhere”; we

propose that similar requirements are translated across to 5 Live‟s service

licence, given their similar remits.

BBC News must also offer “a comprehensive news service each hour,

including sport, business, personal finance and clear, comprehensive

weather updates from across the UK. There should be a news summary on

the half hour.” This example highlights the potential value of defining a

specific editorial focus (such as on business and personal finance topics)

for a service‟s news output.

BBC One‟s service licence states that it “should be the BBC‟s most

significant provider of accurate, impartial and independent television

news, with comprehensive news bulletins in peaktime. Its current affairs

and consumer journalism should reach wide audiences with programmes

of high impact and broad interest.”

BBC One‟s service licence adds that it should “give prominence to a

range of the best of the BBC‟s long-form journalism, featuring analysis of

current events and agenda-setting investigations. There should be regular

57 BARB, May 2011

“the distinctiveness of BBC News

Channel should lie in its ambition

to offer a broad, varied, serious

and analytical news agenda”

BBC News service licence


political coverage and topical debate presenting the full range of

significant opinion”.

Radio 1‟s service licence explains that its “news and current affairs should

deliver accurate and impartial coverage in a tone and language

appropriate to the target audience. Complex issues should be explained

and placed into context to help the audience develop a greater

understanding of national and international events”.

Radio 2‟s service licence states that it “should broadcast each weekday

an accessible current affairs programme in daytime covering topics such

as consumer affairs, finance, the family, education, health and disability,

and offering listeners the opportunity to respond by phone or online”. This

programme – which has had its editorial obligation to cover specific

serious news topics in an accessible way clearly defined – is currently

presented by Jeremy Vine.

5.6. Amending 5 Live‟s service licence: news

5.6.1. The amendments we propose to 5 Live‟s service licence are aimed at ensuring

that 5 Live‟s news programmes expand upon the major national and international

news headlines of the day whilst covering important stories that are neglected

elsewhere in the mainstream news media. The wording we presented in Section ‎2

and also outline below builds on Robin Britten‟s recommendations (such as his

emphasis on „fresh information and understanding‟ and editorial mediation) whilst

also incorporating the finding of

BritainThinks‟ research with 5 Live listeners,

such as that TV, entertainment and

celebrity stories are considered „not news‟

by a clear majority of 5 Live‟s audience.

5.6.2. This approach also reflects the BBC‟s

strategy as outlined in its „Putting Quality

First‟ review, in which the BBC spoke of a

need to deliver the best journalism in the

world. As part of this process, the BBC commissioned July 2010 research from the

Knowledge Agency, in which listeners said that a key characteristic of radio

programmes which are 'Putting Quality First' is "„Proper‟ news reporting”, defined

as “headlines backed up with more depth adapted to suit the particular

station”58. Also of relevance was a proposal to redefine BBC Local Radio as a

“speech-led service delivering high-quality, distinctive journalism that

complements what local commercial radio provides and remains targeted at an

older audience”59.

5.6.3. The service licence amendments we suggest below also build on a key finding

from our 2010 analysis of 5 Live‟s service licence performance, which was that 5

Live‟s use of its unrivalled international and UK network of expert correspondents

was uneven over the period monitored. Such correspondents can clearly play a

key role in sustaining both a breadth and depth of news coverage on 5 Live.

Whilst some use was made of this pre-existing resource, the impression is that 5

58 The Knowledge Agency, „BBC Strategy Review research‟, July 2010, p. 30 59 BBC, „Putting Quality First‟, March 2010

"The BBC should be striving to

produce the best journalism in

the world"

Mark Thompson, Speech at

'Media and Telco: 2011 and beyond', January 2011


BBC Radio 5 Live service licence amendments – News

i. 5 Live’s news programmes should expand upon the major national and

international news headlines of the day whilst covering important stories that

are neglected elsewhere in the mainstream news media

ii. News programmes should achieve this by setting out fresh information on

something that has happened, is happening (breaking news), or is about to

happen that is of concern, relevance or interest to the 5 Live audience

iii. For content on 5 Live to be defined as news, it should be presented with the

overriding intention of bringing forward fresh information and understanding; it

should aim to analyse, simplify, and engage the listener with the complicated,

make the obscure clearer and disentangle hype and spin from core fact

iv. News can be reporter-mediated information, informed discussion and debate,

or mediated audience interaction about this

v. To be classed as news, discussion and audience interactivity should have a

current news impetus, a clear intent to add information and a declared aim

and purpose; it should not be aimless, repetitious and unrelated to the current

news agenda

vi. Mere conversation about the topical - offering no fresh fact, analysis or

interpretation – should not be classified as news

vii. 5 Live’s news output should be distinctive and of a high quality, with a focus on

topics such as crime, politics, business and consumer affairs stories which are

clearly considered ‘news’ by 5 Live’s listeners, and a corresponding lower

emphasis on TV, entertainment and celebrity stories

viii. Original and investigative journalism should be scheduled in a prominent

timeslot on a weekly basis and widely trailed by 5 Live, in order to bring it to the

widest possible audience

ix. 5 Live should draw extensively on the BBC’s network of international and UK

journalists

x. To be classed as a 5 Live news programme, around three quarters of an

individual programme’s output should be dedicated to news content (unless

the programme has a separate stated aim and a corresponding percentage of

news content)

Live is failing to exploit the full value of the unrivalled journalistic tools at its

disposal.


6. 5 Live is principally known for its popular sports coverage, with minority sports

all but absent from its schedules

6.1. 5 Live is identified with sport – particularly men‟s Premier League football

6.1.1. In 1994, the Guardian had predicted that 5 Live‟s biggest editorial challenge

would be “a clash of news and sport”, citing concerns within the BBC‟s sports

department that “news will take priority”60. This concern within BBC Sport that

“news would prevail” was also recorded in the minutes of a BBC Governors

meeting from 11 October 199361.

6.1.2. In fact, since launch, it is not through news but through sport – and particularly

Premier League football – that 5 Live has made its name. BritainThinks April 2011

survey of 5 Live listeners found that when asked what the first word was that came

to mind when thinking about BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live listeners were over five times

more likely to say „sport‟ than „news‟. Listeners were also more likely to say

„football‟ than „news‟. BritainThinks found that listeners also estimate that of BBC

Radio 5 Live‟s total sports content, two-thirds (67%) is football.

Figure 9. “What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of BBC Radio 5 Live?”

Source: BritainThinks, April 2011

6.1.3. These findings reflect 5 Live‟s success in meeting two targets to dominate the

sports radio market which the public service station has been set internally by

management within BBC Sport. The existence of these targets was revealed

earlier this year in a report by MTM London. 5 Live has apparently been set a

target for 62% of people to rate 5 Live as best for sport on radio. 5 Live is also

tasked with attracting 4.1 million listeners to live sport every week.

6.1.4. We consider these targets inappropriate for two reasons. First, they define 5 Live‟s

performance in relation to the competition, rather than in relation to service

licence and public purpose criteria. Second, requirements to maximise listening

and achieve higher approval ratings than competing services provide a natural

incentive for the BBC to acquire more radio rights than any other broadcaster,

and furthermore to acquire rights on an exclusive basis, in order to diminish

60 Andrew Culf, „BBC dismisses fears of „downmarket‟ service‟, The Guardian, 12 October 1993 61 Minutes of BBC Governors board meeting, 11 October 1993 (FOI reference RFI20110629)


competitors‟ rival audience appeal and approval ratings. It is not clear on what

basis 5 Live can justify such aggressive targets; we consider them to be

inappropriate and urge the Trust to consider what, if any, sports-related targets 5

Live should be subject to as part of this service review, with those targets that are

deemed appropriate being added to 5 Live‟s service licence62.

6.1.5. That 5 Live has targeted a position of pre-eminence in sports radio (particularly

focused on football) can be traced to the context of its launch in the mid 1990s,

a period in which Sky Sports was transforming the sports broadcasting market by

acquiring exclusive television sports rights, and so stimulating increased demand

for sport on the radio. In the absence of any other obvious national radio home

for sport, 5 Live was tasked with meeting this demand by BBC management, in

part to mitigate the BBC‟s loss of television rights. Writing in 1996, Maggie Brown

wrote: “It is an open secret that Radio 5 Live has succeeded almost entirely

because of its access to live sporting events”63.

6.1.6. The resulting perceived importance of sport to 5 Live was laid bare in 2000 when

talkSPORT launched, describing itself as the UK‟s first dedicated sports radio

station. In response 5 Live‟s Deputy Controller Mike Lewis declared “Britain already

has a sports station and it‟s called Five

Live”, adding “We‟re ready for the big

fight and we think that when we go toe

to toe, Five Live wins”64. He justified 5

Live‟s exclusive access to Premier League

commentary by arguing that rivals were

free to acquire the rights to less popular

events such as “nationwide league”,

“rugby league” and “racing” instead65.

6.1.7. Improbable as this reaction sounds, a similar attitude can be traced through to

the present day – and not just in the targets referenced above. In 2010 research

undertaken with licence fee payers as part of the BBC‟s „Putting Quality First‟

process, it was revealed that “the role of radio in providing sports coverage was

felt to be less important than perhaps it used to be”66. Yet 5 Live‟s current

direction of travel is in the opposite direction.

6.1.8. In June 2011, Adrian Van Klaveren told Radio 4‟s Feedback that the volume of

Premier League football coverage had “probably” increased over the last five or

ten years, but asserted that this was because the Premier League had grown in

popularity over the period. “Of course we'll continue to bring you more live

football than you'll hear anywhere else” Van Klaveren had told listeners a year

earlier67. He also justified the loss of 2 of its 6 Premier League rights packages by

explaining "we still have substantially more Premier League matches than any

other broadcaster”68. As we note in section ‎8.2, this emphasis on being the

preeminent sports broadcaster in radio continues to be reflected in 5 Live‟s sports

rights budget.

62 MTM London, „The BBC‟s processes for the management of sports rights‟, March 2011 63 Maggie Brown, „Why sport is challenging news for a first team place‟, PR Week UK, 28 June 1996 64 Stephen Armstrong, „Sports Radio - Question of sport coverage is answered‟, PR Week, 21 January 2000 65 Stephen Armstrong, „Sports Radio - Question of sport coverage is answered‟, PR Week, 21 January 2000 66 BBC Strategy Review research 67 Adrian Van-Klaveren, „5 live's Rajar Figures Quarter 3 2010‟, 5 Live Blog, 28 October 2010,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live/2010/10/5-lives-rajar-figures-quarter.shtml 68 BBC Radio 5 Live, Victoria Derbyshire interview with Adrian Van Klaveren, 15 September 2010

“Britain already has a sports

station and it‟s called Five Live”

Mike Lewis, Deputy Controller 5 Live, January 2000


6.2. 5 Live‟s editorial obsession with football places it at odds with its service licence and

directions given to it by the BBC Trust

6.2.1. As well as preventing 5 Live from establishing a reputation as the home of

continuous news on the radio, 5 Live‟s decision to devote so much airtime and

programming resource to football places it at odds with its service licence

requirements relating to sport.

6.2.2. In fact, 5 Live‟s service licence sets out no requirement for 5 Live to offer wall to

wall football. 5 Live was set up at a time when popular football matches were

scheduled at a much narrower range of

times than today, with most Premier

League and Football League matches

scheduled at 3pm on Saturday afternoons,

and European and International fixtures

spread over a narrower range of weekly

timeslots. As the desire of pay per view

channels to offer a daily schedule of

football has dispersed kick-off times

throughout the week, 5 Live has taken the

decision to follow mirror the strategy of

those pay per view channels – but it would

have been free to choose not to under the terms of its service licence.

6.2.3. In the first draft service licence for 5 Live proposed by BBC management in

December 2006, 5 Live would have been required to “give listeners free access to

sports coverage often available only on a pay-to-view basis elsewhere” – in other

words it was 5 Live‟s mission to acquire radio commentary rights for events such as

the Premier League which are carried on subscription TV services. However, this

requirement was swiftly removed by the BBC Trust, who recognised that if 5 Live

did not acquire rights to fixtures such as the Premier League, “free access” would

be likely to be provided by commercial radio69.

6.2.4. Elsewhere, 5 Live‟s current service licence requires it to “unite people around the

big sporting occasions that form a key part of UK culture”. 5 Live is also required to

provide “live commentary on major sporting events (subject to rights)”. Yet there

is no requirement for 5 Live to provide exclusive coverage of four live Premier

League games a week, in addition to exclusive coverage of the FA Cup and

England internationals, and non-exclusive coverage of the Champions League

and Europa League70. On the contrary, 5 Live‟s service licence requires it to

provide live commentary only of certain “major sporting events”, with no

minimum requirement as to the proportion of „major‟ sporting fixtures it should

cover. Indeed 5 Live is not required to cover major sports events at all, with the

“subject to rights” caveat highlighting the possibility that it may be inappropriate

(for instance because it is not cost-effective) for 5 Live to acquire certain „major

sports‟ rights.

6.2.5. 5 Live‟s current strategy of acquiring the majority of the available UK radio

commentary rights to major sporting events, despite the absence of a service

licence requirement for it to do so, raises particular issues because the rights in

question are typically offered only on an exclusive basis. In October 2009, the BBC

Trust reminded BBC Radio 5 Live management that “the achievement of value for

69 BBC 5 Live Service Licence, December 2006 70 BBC 5 Live Service Licence, April 2011

“Why is 5 Live increasingly

resembling talkSPORT? Blokeish

presenters, whether male or

female, appear to be under an

edict to talk about football

wherever possible”.

5 Live listener, Radio 4 Feedback, June 2011


money does not necessarily require the securing of exclusive sports rights, and

that where service licence and other requirements and obligations can be met

without securing exclusive rights, then proper consideration ought to be given to

this option”71. This was set out in its decision to uphold a fair trading complaint by

talkSPORT about how 5 Live went about acquiring exclusive FA Cup rights.

6.2.6. Despite this ruling from the BBC Trust, 5 Live‟s sports rights strategy continues to see

it acquire the majority of available major sports rights. Whilst exclusivity is typically

attached to rights by the rights owner rather than a broadcaster, we see no

reason why the BBC could not insist on waiving this right to exclusivity by

requesting that exclusivity provisions are removed from its sports rights contracts.

We therefore contend that the BBC is failing to give proper regard to the BBC

Trust‟s instruction that it should consider how it can deliver its service licence

obligations without securing exclusive rights to key sports fixtures. We discuss this

further in ‎8.2.6.

6.3. 5 Live‟s sports output contains an excess of football „chat‟

6.3.1. A related issue to 5 Live‟s over-delivery of live Premier League football coverage is

the growth in football chat. As part of BritainThinks research, 5 Live listeners were

more likely to say that the amount of live football commentary, football debate /

phone-ins, and football news has increased in the last five years, than that it has

decreased72.

6.3.2. Minimising the amount of airtime devoted to general football chat and phone-ins

is a key way in which 5 Live can distinguish itself from other stations. It also offers

an opportunity to devote airtime to other subjects – such as news or

underexposed / minority sports. Yet as our 2010 analysis to inform our service

licence complaint to BBC management revealed, 60% of sport output –

representing 22% of total output – consisted of studio-based sporting analysis,

discussion, phone-ins and comedy – primarily concentrating on Premier League,

European and International football.

6.3.3. There is strong evidence of 5 Live‟s preoccupation with sports chat at weekends.

During daytime output on Saturday 13 March (6am – 7.30pm), 81% of output

consisted of „sport‟ and „other speech‟. During Danny Baker‟s Saturday morning

programme, the figure was 84% (28% „other speech‟ + 56% sport), despite an

absence of any live sports fixtures requiring coverage during this timeslot. The

sport programming comprised sport-based chat, anecdotes, trivia and

entertainment.

6.3.4. Whilst 5 Live‟s service licence requires it to stimulate debate, there is no explicit

requirement for it to offer extended sports chat and debates. At present, 5 Live is

missing a clear opportunity to set itself apart from commercial-style talk radio by

focusing its sport output on coverage of live sport, as set out in its service licence

remit, rather than „talking about sport‟, with debates focused on news subjects

and meeting the criteria suggested by Robin Britten.

71 BBC Trust, „Fair Trading Appeal Investigation: Appeal regarding the BBC‟s acquisition of the radio

broadcasting rights to the FA Cup for the period 2008/9 to 2011/12‟, October 2009, p. 10 72 BritainThinks, „BBC Radio 5 Live: An Audience Perspective‟, April 2011


6.4. 5 Live has no regular, scheduled commitment to minority and Olympic sports

6.4.1. As we have already emphasised, it is not just 5 Live‟s news output that has

suffered as a result of its obsession with Premier League football. With Premier

League dominating even when there are no live fixtures to cover, 5 Live lacks any

regular scheduled slots in which minority sports can be sure of receiving

prominent coverage. This is despite 5 Live‟s service licence requiring it to “cover

sports not widely accessible on UK radio” and offer “programming on a broad

range of sports from around the world, including minority sports from time to

time”73.

6.4.2. In their April 2011 research amongst 5 Live listeners, BritainThinks found that 51% of

5 Live listeners believe that it should increase the amount of broadcast time given

to sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters, with only 18%

disagreeing74. In addition, the research revealed that 5 live listeners

overwhelmingly associated 5 Live with

mainstream sports rather than minority

sports / sports that are less often covered

by other broadcasters.

6.4.3. In its ruling on our complaint about 5 Live‟s

service licence compliance in April 2011,

the BBC Trust found that the service

licence “does not provide clear

commitments as to the frequency and

range of coverage of minority and

secondary sports”, tasking this review with “considering this area and reaching

greater clarity on the station‟s commitments in this regard”75.

6.4.4. It is apparent from submissions by BBC management that 5 Live does provide

some exposure for minority and secondary sports. In its response to our complaint

about the absence of minority sports from 5 Live‟s output, the BBC outlined details

of 14 sports which it had covered at some point during 2010.

6.4.5. 5 Live‟s failing in relation to its service licence remit is not that it never covers

sports other than football, cricket, rugby, Formula 1, golf and tennis (which we

consider „major sports‟) but that it is currently relying on listeners to catch minority

and secondary sports output by chance or at random. 5 Live currently lacks daily

scheduled times at which such sports are guaranteed to receive coverage. We

suggest that such slots should be scheduled in each of 5 Live‟s daytime

programmes, as well as in Breakfast and Drive, in weekday evening sports

output), and during peak-time weekend sports output – programmes which as

we have already shown, have very large audiences. This coverage could take

the place of existing football-focused items.

6.4.6. When asked on a previous occasion how 5 Live fulfils its commitments to minority

sports, Adrian Van Klaveren identified “5 Live Monday evenings” and “5 Live

Sports Extra” as places where exposure is given to a broader range of sports. Part

of this answer can be dismissed immediately: 5 Live‟s service licence

commitments cannot be met by 5 Live Sports Extra as it holds a separate service

licence. Furthermore, this licence requires that 5 Live Sports Extra should only

73 BBC Radio Five Live Service Licence, May 2010 74 BritainThinks, „BBC Radio 5 Live: An Audience Perspective‟, April 2011 75 BBC Trust, „General Appeals Finding‟, April 2011

“The service licence does not

provide clear commitments as

to the frequency and range of

coverage of minority and

secondary sport”

BBC Trust, General Appeals Panel Ruling, April 2011


provide coverage of a sport insofar as that coverage was originally earmarked to

appear on 5 Live or Radio 4 Long Wave.

6.4.7. Yet the assertion that 5 Live covers minority sports on Monday evenings is also

incorrect. As it happens, the weekday which we sampled at random for the

purposes of 2010 complaint to BBC management was a Monday – 1 March 2010.

However no minority sports were featured in that evening‟s edition of the

„Monday Night Club‟, which focused exclusively on football. This was despite

there being no live football scheduled. Yet with 5 Live‟s own website describing

this programme as „Mark Chapman with football debate and discussion‟, this is

perhaps not a major surprise. The BBC iPlayer description of the 11 July 2011

edition reads “Mark Chapman, Craig Burley, Ian McGarry and Steve Claridge talk

football”76.

6.4.8. The absence of live football on the Monday evening monitored as part of our

2010 monitoring could have been used by 5 Live as a rare opportunity to reflect

on the Winter Olympics, which had concluded earlier that day in Canada, or to

appraise the success of the England men‟s team at the 2010 Hockey World Cup.

During the 10 months of the year during which the football season is active,

weekday evenings between 7-10pm are dominated by live football commentary,

drawn in particular from the Premier League, Champions League and Europa

League. However, despite the relatively unusual absence of football commentary

commitments, the focus of that evening‟s sports output was an extended studio

chat about Wayne Rooney.

6.4.9. The other key time for sport on 5 Live, apart from weekday evenings, is at

weekends, meaning that minority and Olympic sports could potentially receive

dedicated coverage on Saturdays and Sundays. Yet here too, our analysis

revealed that 5 Live provides no routine coverage of minority sports in its

weekend sports output. On Saturday 13 March 2010, the day sampled at random

for the purpose of our complaint, 5 Live gave no exposure to any minority sports

or sports not widely accessible on UK radio. This was despite offering a total of 14

hours of sports programming. Sports coverage focused entirely on football, rugby

union, cricket, and Formula 1, along with some coverage of athletics (the latter is

arguably classifiable as a „minority sport‟). There were also no programming trails

directing listeners to other points in the schedules where the service licence

requirements relating to minority and secondary sports might be being met.

6.4.10. 5 Live‟s failure to offer regular scheduled

exposure to minority and secondary sports

is particularly surprising given the

commitment given by BBC management

to do just that in 2001. As part of a report

for BBC Governors entitled „BBC Listens‟, it

was discovered that 5 Live‟s sports output

was overly dominated by football. An

independent panel including Pat Nevin,

Tanni Grey-Thompson, Bridget Rosewell and Gary Younge considered the issue

and proposed that 5 Live should “expand the range and scope of sports

coverage”. In response, 5 Live “made a commitment to increase the range of

sports covered in Chiles on Saturday and Sport on Five”77.

76 5 Live website. Accessed 12 July 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ctvmw 77 BBC Governors, BBC Annual Report 2000/01, 2001, p. 35

“Radio Five Live has made a

commitment to increase the

range of sports covered in Chiles

on Saturday and Sport on Five”

BBC Annual Report 2000/01


6.4.11. In an era of pre-BBC Trust governance, these commitments appear to have been

adopted and then forgotten almost as quickly. As our analysis showed, minority

sports receive little or no coverage on Saturdays. There was an opportunity for 5

Live to readopt these previous commitments when it lost the rights for 2 of its 6

Premier League commentary packages in 2010. Yet 5 Live‟s weekend output has

maintained its focus on football, as Van Klaveren had predicted it would in 2009:

“that‟s what our audience would expect from us” he told a Radio Academy

event, adding “Premier League football is clearly huge in this country”78.

6.4.12. There are four key reasons why the BBC should address this and be required to

provide a regular scheduled commitment to minority sports:

BBC Radio 5 Live is the only UK radio network which possesses the

audience reach, resources, remit and means of distribution to deliver

effective coverage of minority sports

There is an appetite for coverage of minority sports amongst 5 Live‟s

listeners which is not being met

Delivering more balanced sports output would help 5 Live to deliver a

more balanced audience

By covering a broader range of sports, 5 Live can fulfil its commitment to

boosting participation in sport and so offer a permanent legacy for the

London 2012 Olympics

6.4.13. We now address each of these points in turn.

6.5. 5 Live is the only radio station in a position to deliver broad sports coverage

6.5.1. A key reason for 5 Live to bolster its commitment to minority sports is that it is

uniquely positioned to deliver a platform for these sports; no other UK radio

network possesses the combination of advantages which is available to the

licence fee funded service. 5 Live‟s unique attributes for this task include its

significant programming budget (£53.3m), its nationwide reach, and its access to

scarce analogue broadcast spectrum which means that it is available in virtually

all households and in all major radio listening locations, including in-car.

6.5.2. Relegating coverage of these sports to 5 Live Sports Extra would be

unacceptable given the limited reach of this part-time digital service. 5 Live Sport

Extra‟s part-time nature means that it attracts a low audience and is principally

an „appointment to listen‟ station, rather than a network on which listeners end

up being exposed to programming (such as minority sports output) that they had

not actually tuned in to hear. 5 Live Sports Extra attracted 799,000 listeners in Q1

2011, 79% of whom were male. In total, 5 Live Sports Extra accounts for just 4.6% of

the combined listening to 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra.

6.5.3. 5 Live Sports Extra‟s reliance on DAB transmission also means that it is unavailable

on the vast majority of radio receivers currently used in the UK. DAB currently

accounts for just 16.7% of radio listening whilst only just over a third of UK

households possesses even a single DAB receiver79.

78 Radio Academy, „Adrian Van Klaveren In Conversation‟, November 2009,

http://www.radioacademy.org/events/london-events/london-events-2009/adrian-van-klaveren-in-

conversation/ 79 RAJAR Q1 2011


6.5.4. Furthermore, those listeners that can access 5 Live Sports Extra on DAB are more

likely to be ABC1 than C2DE. Ofcom‟s 2010 Digital Radio Progress Report found

that those listeners who do possess a DAB radio are typically from affluent

demographic groups, with DAB ownership highest in wealthy areas of the South

East, such as South East Surrey and Cambridge80. Similarly, in July 2011, Kantar

Media research for the BBC Trust found that adults in the higher ABC1 social

grades are significantly more likely than adults in the lower C2DE social grades to

listen to digital radio (37% vs. 25%)81. Accordingly 63% of 5 Live Sports Extra‟s

audience is ABC1, and 68% is over 45. This also indicates that 5 Live Sports Extra is

an unsuitable network to use in encouraging young people to participate in sport

– another of 5 Live‟s key service licence requirements.

6.5.5. 5 Live Sports Extra‟s ability to provide a platform for minority sports is also restricted

by its service licence restrictions which prevent it from acquiring its own sports

rights; we explain why these must remain in place and indeed be clarified in

section ‎7.

6.5.6. Like 5 Live Sports Extra, commercial radio is

also poorly positioned to provide the

prominent platform for minority and

Olympic sports on UK radio that we

propose. This is partly because it lacks the

resource advantages available to the

BBC. These advantages include the large

number of sports experts employed by

BBC Sport and the access to sporting

events and expertise gained through its television operations. In addition,

commercial radio‟s reliance on advertising and sponsorship means that it is

difficult to offset the high production costs associated with sports coverage other

than for highly popular sports such as football. Finally, commercial considerations

also obligate the commercial sector to focus on niche audience demographics

in order to appeal to advertisers (for instance talkSPORT targets ABC1 men aged

15-44), whereas the BBC has a mission to cater for all sports fans, regardless of

gender, age or demographic profile.

6.6. There is an appetite for coverage of minority sports amongst 5 Live‟s listeners

6.6.1. It is easy to dismiss calls for 5 Live to cover a wider range of sports by arguing that

these sports are insufficiently popular to sustain an audience. Yet although

football is the most popular sport in the UK, there is nevertheless significant public

interest in a much wider range of sports. This has been most recently

demonstrated by the level of demand for tickets at next year‟s London 2012

Olympics.

6.6.2. Furthermore, as a public service broadcaster, it is not for the BBC to devise its

sports schedules on the basis of audience maximisation. As the BBC‟s Director

General said in 2010, “The public want a range of programmes from the BBC,

including popular ones, but they don't want a BBC which is driven at all by ratings

or commercialism or by any form of competitiveness other than the urge to be

the best”. As Mark Thompson added in his speech, “the BBC needs to make a

further significant shift towards distinctiveness, spending more of the licence fee

80 Ofcom, „The Communications Market: Digital Radio Report‟, August 2010 81 Kantar Media for BBC Trust, „BBC Trust Purpose Remit Study 2010-2011 UK‟, Jul 2011

Adults in the higher ABC1 social

grades are significantly more

likely than adults in the lower

C2DE social grades to listen to

digital radio (37% vs. 25%)

BBC Trust Purpose Remit Study, July 2011


on output that you can't see or hear anywhere else and which, without the BBC,

wouldn't get made at all.”82

6.6.3. In their April 2011 research, BritainThinks

found that 5 Live‟s focus on Premier

League has strongly skewed its appeal

towards football fans. BritainThinks found

that 86% of 5 Live listeners are interested in

Premier League football, which was

almost three times the proportion among

the general adult population in a

separate survey for the Premier League

using the same Populous research panel.

Similarly, more than 80% of 5 Live listeners

expressed an interest in European or

International football (82%) and say that they are interested in Championship

football (81%).

6.6.4. Yet despite this strong football bias, BritainThinks found that even within 5 Live‟s

football-skewed audience, which has been shaped by its equally football-skewed

output, there is high interest in a wide range of minority sports. These findings are

set out in Figure 10, and show that even for the less popular sport surveyed –

netball – there is a still a sizeable 20% of 5 Live‟s audience which expresses an

interest in the sport. Other sports such as gymnastics (39%) and table tennis (30%)

also generated surprisingly high levels of interest amongst the 5 Live listeners

polled for this research. In fact BritainThinks found that 89% of 5 Live listeners are

interested in at least one sport which less than 50% of 5 Live‟s listeners expressed

an interest in (i.e. any sport from Rugby League downwards on the list set out in

Figure 10).

82 Mark Thompson, MacTaggart Lecture 2010, August 2010

“The public want a range of

programmes from the BBC,

including popular ones, but they

don't want a BBC which is driven

at all by ratings or

commercialism or by any form

of competitiveness other than

the urge to be the best”.

Mark Thompson, August 2010


Figure 10. 5 Live‟s listeners are interested in a wide range of sports

Q. How interested would you say you are in each of the following sports?

SUM: Very interested /Somewhat interested

Premier League football 86

European or International football 82

Championship football 81

Cricket 70

Formula 1/Motorsport 70

Athletics 66

Lower League or non-League football 66

Rugby Union 64

Tennis 63

Snooker 54

Golf 53

Cycling 52

Boxing 50

Rugby League 47

Swimming / Diving 45

Darts 43

Horse Racing 41

Gymnastics 39

Skiing 36

Badminton 31

Water Sports - Canoeing/Sailing/Skiing 31

American Football 30

Table Tennis 30

Basketball 27

Fishing 27

Hockey 27

Show Jumping 27

Squash 23

Volleyball 23

Netball 20

Source: BritainThinks, April 2011

6.6.5. This evidence of strong interest in a wide range of sports does not suggest that 5

Live should necessarily provide weekly hockey commentary; however it does

indicate an appetite for a wider range of sports coverage, and strongly suggests

that 5 Live‟s audience would not only tolerate but welcome an increased level of

regular scheduled coverage.


6.7. Delivering more balanced sports output would help 5 Live to deliver a more

balanced audience

6.7.1. In addition to meeting the needs of 5 Live‟s current audience, extending the

range of sports covered by 5 Live is likely to

help it to achieve a more balanced

audience. Prior to 5 Live launching in 1994,

male listeners to the BBC‟s radio sport

programmes outnumbered female

listeners by nine to one, with Jenny

Abramsky outlining her hope that 5 Live

would “change that balance to six to

four”. Plans were announced to “attract

more women to sports radio by increasing

coverage of tennis, athletics and golf, which have growing female audiences”83.

6.7.2. 5 Live‟s first schedule accordingly included a programme about women‟s sport

called „Women on Top‟, presented by Frances Edmonds as part of an attempt

“to reduce the overwhelmingly male bias of sports coverage”. Edmonds was

quoted as saying “We want to try to bring more women into sport both as

participants and as administrators. So we want to hear from women if they have

a story to tell or an axe to grind”84.

6.7.3. Similar strategies are no longer apparent at 5 Live. As a result, 72% of 5 Live‟s

listeners are now male, as shown in Figure 11, with the proportion having grown

slightly over the last decade. The proportion of male listeners increases to 76%

during sports programming. Men also account for 71% of 5 Live‟s weekly listening

hours, which increases to 79% within sports programming.

Figure 11. Over 70% of 5 Live‟s 15+ audience is male – and the proportion is growing

Source: RAJAR Q1 2002 – Q1 2011

83 Alexandra Frean, „Radio Five denies unsporting tactics‟, The Times, 25 January 1994 84 Alexandra Frean, „Radio 5 Live picks voices to woo young listeners‟, The Times, 15 March 1994

62%

64%

66%

68%

70%

72%

74%

76%

2002

Q2

2002

Q4

2003

Q2

2003

Q4

2004

Q2

2004

Q4

2005

Q2

2005

Q4

2006

Q2

2006

Q4

2007

Q2

2007

Q4

2008

Q2

2008

Q4

2009

Q2

2009

Q4

2010

Q2

2010

Q4

“5 Live is the station Gene Hunt

would listen to on the radio

while roaring around in his

Quattro and crashing into

cardboard boxes”

Jan Moir, July 2010


6.7.4. Such is the association of 5 Live with a male audience that when 5 Live launched

a new magazine programme called „Mens Hour‟ in 2010, Jan Moir wrote, “There

are many things you could say about the BBC's Radio 5 Live, but wishing they

would broadcast more programmes aimed at men probably would not be one

of them”, referring to its “testosterone-rich output”85.

6.7.5. Similar views are reflected in BritainThinks research findings from April 2011.

BritainThinks found that 5 Live listeners overwhelmingly associated the station with

male listeners rather than female listeners. 92% of respondents to the survey –

which was weighted to reflect the demographic profile of 5 Live‟s audience –

were more likely to associate the station with male listeners. This is significantly

higher than the percentage of 5 Live‟s audience which is actually male,

suggesting that many women who listen to the station do so with a perception

that the station is not targeted at them.

6.7.6. RAJAR analysis backs this up, confirming that 5 Live currently does not generally

appeal to women unless they are also interested in sport. In total, 73% of 5 Live‟s

listeners tune into some sport programming in any given week, but this only drops

to 63% amongst its female audience (compared with 76% amongst men)86.

Indeed BritainThinks also found that a clear majority (72%) of female 5 Live

listeners have an interest in Premier League football. In other words, it appears

that most women who listen to 5 Live do so at least in part in order to listen to its

sports programming – particularly football.

6.7.7. This evidence suggests that 5 Live‟s focus on football has damaged the delivery

of its central remit – to offer programming with broad appeal for anyone

interested in listening to news and / or sport on the radio. Delivering more

balanced sports output is just one way in which 5 Live can address this.

6.8. By covering a broader range of sports, 5 Live can fulfil its commitment to boosting

participation in sport and so offer a permanent legacy for the London 2012

Olympics

6.8.1. In addition to the benefits highlighted above, 5 Live can deliver a wider public

service benefit by improving its coverage of minority sports. With just a year to go

until the London Olympics, there is currently unprecedented public interest in a

variety of sports which normally struggle for primetime media attention, but which

can boast high levels of grassroots support and participation. This boost in interest

in sport in all its forms is a key part of what it is hoped that London 2012 will help to

deliver.

6.8.2. In the build-up to the Olympics, 5 Live is offering Olympics-related programming

such as its dedicated Olympics strand London Calling, but by its very nature this is

not a permanent fixture in 5 Live‟s schedule. By spelling out 5 Live‟s long-term

commitment to Olympic and minority sports in its daily flagship sports strands, the

BBC has an opportunity to ensure a permanent home for minority and Olympic

sports on mainstream UK radio, and to meet its responsibilities to boost sports

participation. Such an objective should sit at the heart of its public service mission.

6.8.3. In the course of preparing this submission, we contacted a number of minority

and Olympic sports organisations, who all confirmed their view that one of the

conditions for an enduring Olympics legacy is appropriate media coverage for

85 Jan Moir, „Men's Hour? The LAST thing we need is more Radio Bloke‟, Daily Mail, 14 July 2010 86 RAJAR Q1 2011


the full range of sports enjoyed in this country. Our approach to these

organisations was made through 1984 Olympic Gold Medallist Tessa Sanderson,

who is appearing in Olympics programming on talkSPORT in the run-up to London

2012 (this link to UTV Media was spelt out in Tessa‟s letter).

6.8.4. The responses we received to Tessa‟s approach were unwaveringly positive. In

total, 14 organisations responded supporting the idea of an increased

commitment to minority and Olympic Sports by BBC radio. These were [].[]

also responded with a letter than stated that [], and promising to submit their

own response to the BBC Trust.

6.8.5. Most of these organisations outlined their intention to respond directly to the BBC

Trust within the consultation window. All of them provided us with perspectives or

insights to inform this section of our response. In addition, seven organisations also

offered to add their signatures to a joint letter calling for a regular scheduled

commitment to minority and Olympic sports on 5 Live. These organisations were

[]. This joint letter, which is also signed by Tessa Sanderson – herself a passionate

proponent of a lasting Olympics legacy – has been submitted separately to the

BBC Trust and it also appended to this submission.

6.9. Amending 5 Live‟s service licence: sport

6.9.1. The service licence amendments we propose in relation to sport are focused on

ensuring that 5 Live makes a meaningful commitment – backed by appropriate

targets – to covering a broad range of minority and international sports, including

sports not widely accessible on UK radio. To ensure that these important

programming strands are brought to a wide audience, 5 Live should broadcast

news or live coverage of minority and secondary sports on a daily basis, in its

flagship sports programmes, including peak listening periods at weekends. The

proposals we make have been devised in dialogue with the fourteen sports

organisations we spoke to to inform our submission to this review, as referred to

above.

6.9.2. For BBC radio‟s new commitment to minority and Olympic sports to have a

tangible impact, we – together with the eight signatories to the separate letter

from sports organisations – suggest that it should:

Include daily coverage in peak-time programming and within 5 Live‟s

flagship sports programmes, ensuring the widest possible reach

Be properly signposted, making it easily „discoverable‟ by listeners

Provide a platform to any sport which can demonstrate meaningful levels

of participation and support across the UK – not just Olympic sports

Give prominence to women‟s sports, as well as men‟s sports

Provide listeners with information about how they can participate in the

sports featured on air

6.9.3. We propose that 5 Live‟s commitment to minority and Olympic sports should be

delivered at the following times:

Peaktime breakfast and drive programmes

Weekday evening sports programmes

Weekend peaktime live sport coverage


6.9.4. The test of 5 Live‟s new commitment to minority and Olympic sports will be

whether it breaks the stranglehold over coverage currently enjoyed by men‟s

football, specifically the Premier League. As such, we propose that in place of

BBC Sport‟s current sports radio targets, 5 Live‟s service licence should gain new

targets focused on achieving this – such as a requirement for minority sports to

comprise at least 40% of total sports output (or 875 hours per year). We note that 5

Live currently has fewer quantitative „Statement of Programme Policy‟

commitments than any other national radio station, and propose that the BBC

Trust addresses this with an appropriate target for minority sports coverage.

6.9.5. Such is football‟s dominance of mainstream media sports coverage that all other

sports arguably have „minority sport‟ status – that is they are left to compete for

the minority of sports coverage which is not allocated to football. This is reflected

in our proposal to define minority sports as those sports which receive relatively

low levels of media coverage, but which can nevertheless demonstrate

meaningful levels of participation and support across the UK. Building on this, we

call on the BBC Trust to develop an additional service licence requirement that

no single sport should take up more than a certain proportion (such as 40%) of 5

Live‟s sports airtime – with the threshold being set at such a level as ensures that 5

Live‟s audience appeal is not overly slanted towards one audience group, as has

occurred in relation to male listeners as a result of the current focus on football.

6.9.6. In addition, we have proposed that when faced with a choice between covering

two different sports events, one of which is likely to be covered elsewhere on UK

radio, 5 Live should incline towards coverage of the event which is less likely to

receive coverage elsewhere.


BBC Radio 5 Live service licence amendments – Sport

xi. 5 Live’s sports output should focus on live coverage, or on news and analysis

which presents fresh information and understanding of current sports events.

xii. 5 Live should seek to distinguish itself from commercial sports media outlets

by minimising its reliance on studio chat and discussion, particularly about

popular sports such as football

xiii. Minority sports should make up at least 40% of 5 Live’s sports output,

comprising a minimum of 875 hours per year [level to be determined by BBC

Trust]

xiv. No single sport should be allowed to take up more than 40% of 5 Live’s sports

airtime, comprising a maximum of 875 hours per year [level to be determined

by BBC Trust]

xv. 5 Live should provide daily news and live coverage of minority and

secondary sports fixtures within its daily flagship sports programmes, including

peak listening periods at weekends

xvi. Minority sports should be defined as those sports which receive relatively low

levels of media coverage, but which can nevertheless demonstrate

meaningful levels of participation and support across the UK

xvii. As well as being scheduled at prominent times, minority sports coverage

should be properly signposted, making it easily ‘discoverable’ by listeners

xviii. 5 Live should seek to give prominence to women’s sports, as well as covering

men’s sports

xix. 5 Live should provide listeners with information about how they can

participate in the sports featured on air

xx. When faced with a choice between covering two different sports events,

one of which is likely to be covered elsewhere on UK radio, 5 Live should

incline towards the event which is less likely to receive coverage elsewhere


7. 5 Live Sports Extra‟s mere existence reflects 5 Live‟s dominance of sports rights

and its failure to cover minority sports

7.1. 5 Live Sports Extra has expanded beyond its original scope

7.1.1. The launch of 5 Live Sports Extra in 2002 reflected BBC radio‟s success in

dominating the market for radio sports

rights, with the BBC possessing more sports

rights than it could conceivably hope to

put to air. The Secretary of State‟s

approval notice described the proposed

service – then named as Five Live Sports

Plus – as “a distinctive, well-defined

service, which will broadcast only when it

can make better use of existing sports

rights already obtained for BBC radio”. The

Government added that “It is important

that the service is and continues to be,

distinctive from competitors and maintains

its role as an overflow service from existing BBC radio”. Two conditions were

imposed:

The service will broadcast live sporting events which cannot be

accommodated on BBC Radio Five Live. It will not be a full time network.*

In particular, the service must be used solely as an overflow for rights that

have been obtained for broadcasting on Radio Five Live and Radio 4

Long Wave and must not provide an additional outlet for which the BBC

will bid against commercial broadcasters.

* Sports currently covered will include English Test Cricket (Test Match

Special), Nationwide football, Open golf, the Scottish Premier League,

Zurich Premiership Rugby Union, Formula One qualifying rounds and

additional courts at Wimbledon87

7.1.2. Sports Extra‟s current remit has since expanded beyond what was originally

envisaged by the Government, with evidence that BBC management are

effectively acquiring additional rights for deployment on 5 Live Sports Extra, and

also seeking to define a standalone identity and content offering for the overflow

sports service.

7.1.3. The Government‟s 2001 decision note made it clear that 5 Live Sports Extra must

never acquire its own rights in any circumstance, and that it should not have a

separately defined content offering to 5 Live. Whilst the current 5 Live service

licence more or less replicates the two conditions, the emphasis on the station

broadcasting “only when it can make better use of existing sports rights already

obtained for BBC radio” is not so apparent (this phrase has not survived the

transition to service licences).

7.1.4. Perhaps as a result of this service licence ambiguity, the BBC now regularly

acquires live commentary rights for 5 Live Sports Extra whilst publicly making it

clear that it has no intention of deploying the rights on 5 Live or Radio 4. This is

evidenced by the following:

87 DCMS, „BBC New Digital Services – Schedule of Decisions‟, 13 September 2001

“It is important that the service is

and continues to be, distinctive

from competitors and maintains

its role as an overflow service

from existing BBC radio”

Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP,

Secretary of State for Culture

Media and Sport, September

2001


In September 2009, the BBC announced that 5 Live Sports Extra was to

“broadcast exclusively live from Europe's biggest extreme sports and

music festival, White Air '09 in Brighton”. 5 Live‟s Commissioning Editor

Jonathan Wall said “White Air gives 5 Live Sports Extra an opportunity to

showcase hugely popular sports, which don't always get much national

exposure, and bring a flavour of the festival to our listeners.” No details of

coverage on BBC Radio 5 or Radio 4 Long Wave were announced88.

Also in September 2009, Jonathan Wall announced that the BBC was

“further expanding our sports portfolio on 5 Live Sports Extra” by

“broadcasting the first weekly live NFL programme on British radio”, with a

press release explaining “The NFL comes to BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

with a new weekly programme every Sunday from 13 September (9.00pm-

12.30am)”. No plans were announced to broadcast any live commentary

on 5 Live or Radio 4 Long Wave suggesting that the rights were acquired

for exclusive use by 5 Live Sports Extra89.

In January 2010, the BBC announced that “BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

will capture all the action from the two crucial AFC and NFC

championship games that will determine the finalists at the show piece

date in the NFL calendar, the Superbowl final 2010”, with a „Note to

Editors‟ explaining that “BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra is the home of BBC

radio's NFL coverage”90. Again, there were no plans to broadcast live

commentary on 5 Live or Radio 4 Long Wave.

In September 2010, the BBC announced “Live coverage of NFL games

returns to BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra for the 2010 campaign”, promising

“more games than ever before”. Again, the commentary schedule

focused exclusively on 5 Live Sports Extra91.

In March 2011, the BBC announced that 5 Live Sports Extra would

“broadcast live the first ever, regular season NBA games to be played in

Europe this weekend (Friday 4 and Saturday 5 March)”, with Jonathan

Wall saying “We know how big the NBA is in the UK and it's great that

Sports Extra can capture this historic event”92.

Other sports fixtures which are subject to full commentary coverage on 5

Live Sports Extra despite little evidence that they are commentated on by

5 Live include Moto GP, Rugby League, Italian Masters tennis, World Track

Championship Cycling and World Championship Trials Swimming. The

inclusion of Rugby League is notable, since in the past BBC management

are believed to have told listeners that is was impossible for 5 Live Sports

Extra to carry these fixtures, due to the restriction on the service carrying its

own rights93.

7.1.5. Whilst many of these rights may be acquired at minimal cost, or in the face of

minimal competitive interest, if they are acquired at all with a view to exploitation

88 BBC Press Office, Radio 5 Live Sports Extra goes extreme at White Air '09, 1 September 2009 89 BBC Press Office, „American football and US basketball join the Radio 5 Live sports portfolio with weekly NFL

show on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and NBA Europe on 5 Live‟, 8 September 2009 90 BBC Press Office, „The NFL on 5 Live Sports Extra‟, 22 January 2010 91 BBC Sport Website, „Live NFL action returns to BBC Radio‟, 8 September 2010 92 BBC Press Office, „American Basketball on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra as NBA comes to the UK‟, 4 March

2011 93 This is anecdotal, but we have strong basis to believe that this issue was once the subject of a edition of

Radio 4‟s Feedback programme


by 5 Live Sports Extra rather than 5 Live or Radio 4 Long Wave, it implies that their

acquisition has been made at odds with 5 Live Sports Extra‟s formal service remit.

7.1.6. In some cases, it is our impression that the agreements to carry these sports have

come about at the instigation of the rights owners, for instance as the product of

a strategy of boosting the commercial development of the sport in question,

rather than due to a service licence or public purpose imperative. This may

particularly apply to sports with much stronger support overseas than in the UK. To

be clear, we have no visibility on whether agreements are indeed being reached

on this basis. However, if they are, it raises questions about whether the BBC is

allowing rights owners to effectively subsidise the cost of sports coverage on BBC

radio, in exchange for promotional

benefits which are accordingly

unavailable to other rights owners.

7.1.7. We urge the BBC Trust to use this review to

investigate and clarify whether 5 Live

Sports Extra has indeed acquired its own

rights, and on what basis, as it appears

from the above statements by BBC

management that the service is not

currently being operated in accordance

with its service licence.

7.1.8. In addition, there is evidence that BBC management are now seeking to define a

standalone identity and content offering for the overflow sports service. BBC

management has started to describe 5 Live Sports Extra as “the home of cricket”,

such as in its 2010 „Annual Performance against Public Commitments‟ document,

which cited the signing of Michael Vaughan as a pundit for a Test series in South

Africa as a key component in this strategy94. The rights acquisitions quoted above

also include similar language.

7.1.9. Again, we urge the BBC Trust to investigate whether BBC management‟s

programming and marketing strategy for 5 Live Sports Extra is consistent with its

published service licence remit.

7.2. 5 Live Sports Extra should operate solely as a temporary overflow during major

sporting events, rather as a full-time network '

7.2.1. At the time of writing, we are aware that the BBC may be preparing proposals for

the future of 5 Live Sports Extra as part of the anticipated „Delivering Quality First‟

announcements later this year. This possibility is evidenced not only by the above

examples of management seeking to acquire additional rights for the station and

give it a standalone identity, but also by hints from management and the BBC

Trust.

7.2.2. We agree that 5 Live Sports Extra‟s remit should indeed be reviewed, but we

propose that its long-term role should be limited to that of a temporary overflow

service which operates solely during major sporting events such as the Olympics

or Wimbledon, rather than a full-time network. In other words we propose a

reduction in its remit, rather than an expansion.

94 BBC, „2009/10 Performance Against Public Commitments‟, 2010

“5 Live Sports Extra will be

further developed and

promoted as the home of all

forms of cricket, with the Ashes

as the centrepiece”

BBC Statements of Programme

Policy, 2009/10


7.2.3. This proposal directly contradicts the hints given by BBC management that they

would like to expand the remit of 5 Live Sports Extra:

In September 2010, Controller Adrian Van Klaveren outlined his aspiration

to “develop” 5 Live Sports Extra by providing more “breadth” for sports

fans, adding “we've already started re-running commentaries"95.

In July 2011, the BBC‟s 2011/12 workplan proposed “an additional DAB

stream to carry Olympic coverage, during the games”96. This appears to

build on previous temporary DAB services such as „BBC Tennis‟ which have

been operated by the BBC during past sports events. In February 2011, the

BBC Trust noted that this practice “raises some questions about the BBC's

use of sports rights across its radio portfolio”, requesting that the BBC

consider this area further as part of this current review97.

In February 2011, the BBC Trust‟s report on Radio 4 explained that BBC

management‟s long-term ambition is to make 5 Live Sports Extra – rather

than Radio 4 Long Wave – the home of cricket coverage under the Test

Match Special banner. The report indicated that Radio 4 Long Wave

would need to continue until “digital penetration is more or less universal”,

however we note that this statement was published before the

commencement of the BBC‟s Delivering Quality First review, and that

consideration of such a move may now be brought forward98.

7.2.4. We do not believe that there is a public service justification to expand 5 Live

Sports Extra‟s remit and use of licence fee funds, given the significant volume of

sports programming already available on UK radio. BBC management‟s rationale

for an expansion in 5 Live Sports Extra‟s remit will also be reduced should 5 Live

strengthen its delivery of minority sports coverage – as we propose above.

7.2.5. Instead, it should be the aspiration of BBC management to incrementally reduce

its dominance of the sports radio in the years to come, with 5 Live Sports Extra

reverting to an overflow service which principally operates during major sporting

events. Its output should be restricted solely to live commentary, with repeat

commentaries / highlights restricted to the BBC iPlayer where they can be

accessed on a truly on-demand basis by those listeners that wish to be able to

access this content.

7.2.6. Our proposal does acknowledge the important role that 5 Live Sports Extra plays

during major sporting events, such as the forthcoming Olympics. We accept that

it will provide significant coverage of this event and also acknowledge that this is

likely to be in the public interest. However, at other times it is reasonable to

expect that if the BBC‟s sports rights procurement processes are operating

efficiently there should be weeks in which 5 Live Sports Extra does not operate,

due to an absence of sports rights which have been acquired for 5 Live or Radio

4 Long Wave and cannot be accommodated on either service. At present, this is

not the case, with 5 Live Sports Extra providing a more or less daily service.

7.2.7. Given the comparatively high cost of Premier League, Champions League, FA

Cup and England International football rights, it raises particularly significant

questions about BBC radio sport rights procurement if premium football rights end

up being scheduled on 5 Live Sports Extra rather than 5 Live. Given 5 Live Sports

95 BBC Radio 5 Live, Victoria Derbyshire interview with Adrian Van Klaveren, 15 September 2010 96 BBC, „BBC Executive Priorities and Summary Workplan for 2011/12‟, July 2011, p. 10 97 BBC Trust, „Review of BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7 – Final Report‟, February 2011 98 BBC Trust, „Service Review: BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 & BBC Radio 7‟, February 2011


Extra‟s remit as an overflow service which cannot acquire its own rights, we would

not expect 5 Live Sports Extra to broadcast these fixtures, except in exceptional

circumstances (such as if there is a major breaking news event), and we suggest

that 5 Live Sports Extra‟s service licence should make this clear.

7.2.8. We also take this opportunity to express concern that costs of radio sports rights

may not be being properly ascribed to 5 Live Sports Extra within the BBC‟s current

budgeting process, meaning that the cost of acquiring rights which the BBC is

unable to accommodate on Radio 4 Long Wave or 5 Live is not properly

captured and acknowledged to the BBC Trust. For instance 5 Live Sports Extra

currently broadcasts some Premier League football (although we suggest above

that it should not). Given that [] 5 Live Sports Extra‟s annual content budget is

just £2.5m, it appears possible that the relevant cost of these carrying these

fixtures is not being properly assigned to 5 Live Sports Extra.

7.2.9. Finally we reiterate that 5 Live Sports Extra should not be considered as a potential

home for minority sports coverage on BBC radio by either BBC management or

the BBC Trust. As outlined in paragraph ‎6.5.2 of this response, DAB has a low

audience reach, with DAB receivers concentrated in wealthier households –

particularly in the South East of England. Instead, BBC Radio should promote

minority sports and sports participation using its principal national network for live

sport and other sports programming, i.e. 5 Live. Consigning minority sports output

to 5 Live Sports Extra otherwise would be no less counter-intuitive than restricting

Radio 1‟s widely respected specialist music programmes to 1Xtra.

7.3. Amending 5 Live Sports Extra‟s service licence

7.3.1. 5 Live Sports Extra‟s current service licence states that “BBC Five Live Sports Extra

should exploit sports rights owned by the BBC that cannot be accommodated by

BBC Radio Five Live or Radio 4 Long Wave”99. We propose that this should be

revised to accurately reflect the remit outlined in the Government‟s 2001 decision

note, which explicitly stated that 5 Live Sports Extra would “broadcast only when it

can make better use of existing sports rights already obtained for BBC radio”.

7.3.2. In other words, it should make clear that the BBC must not acquire rights

specifically for use by 5 Live Sports Extra – even if the rights are offered at low or

minimal cost, or if there is no competitive interest in the rights from commercial

broadcasters. If it is considered in the public interest for a minority sports event to

be covered on national BBC radio, then coverage should be scheduled on 5

Live.

99 5 Live Sports Extra service licence, April 2011


BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra service licence amendments

xxi. 5 Live Sports Extra should broadcast only when it can make better use of

existing sports rights already obtained for BBC radio

xxii. 5 Live Sports Extra should principally operate during major sporting events

rather than offering a regular schedule of output

xxiii. The BBC should never acquire rights specifically for use by 5 Live Sports Extra,

even if the rights are offered at low or minimal cost, or if there is no

competitive interest in the rights from commercial broadcasters

xxiv. Output should be restricted solely to live commentary, with repeat

commentaries / highlights restricted to BBC iPlayer where they can be better

accessed on a truly on-demand basis

xxv. If it is considered in the public interest for a minority sports event to be

covered on national BBC radio, then coverage should be scheduled on 5 Live

xxvi. 5 Live Sports Extra should not broadcast Premier League football, except in

exceptional circumstances (such as when there is a major breaking news

event on 5 Live)


8. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra deliver the lowest value for money of any

national speech radio stations in the UK – with high cost areas including sports

rights

8.1. There are significant disparities between 5 Live and talkSPORT‟s respective

production budgets

8.1.1. Although we do not have access to a breakdown of 5 Live and 5 Live Sport

Extra‟s costs, the high level expenditure figures published by the BBC and BBC

Trust reveal that they are the most expensive national speech radio stations in the

UK, on a cost per listener hour basis. 5 Live‟s budgeted costs in 2011/12 are

£71.8m, of which content costs are £53.3m, distribution costs are £6.8m and

infrastructure / support costs are £11.6m100.

8.1.2. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra‟s budgets are compared with that of talkSPORT‟s in

Figure 12. This shows that 5 Live‟s content budget is [] higher than that of

talkSPORT, whilst its total budget is []. talkSPORT‟s budget includes sales costs,

which 5 Live does not incur. This ratio of costs []; in 2009 John Myers reported

that the BBC was spending “an estimated £405m per annum on radio

programme production, compared to the commercial

sector‟s £74m per annum”101.

8.1.3. The talkSPORT financial data shared here is highly confidential and is provided to

the BBC Trust on the provisos that it is not disclosed to any other party, including

BBC management, and that it is used solely for the purposes of this review.

[]102,[].

100 BBC, „BBC Executive Priorities and Summary Workplan for 2011/12‟, 3 July 2011, p. 10 101 John Myers, „An Independent Review of the Rules Governing Local Content on Commercial Radio‟, April

2009 102 [].


Figure 12. Comparison of 5 Live and talkSPORT budgets

[]

Source: BBC Executive Priorities and Summary Workplan for 2011/12‟; talkSPORT accounts

8.1.4. Building on this, Figure 13 shows that both 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra are around

[] more expensive on a cost per user hour basis than talkSPORT (measured in

terms of content costs, as per the methodology used in BBC Annual reports). Both

services are also nearly twice as expensive as Radio 4, on a cost per user hour

basis, and significantly more expensive than Radio 4 Extra. (We note that whilst

„cost per user hour‟ does have some merit as a means of comparing services, it

does not necessarily indicate whether a service is operating efficiently.)

Figure 13. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra are the UK‟s most expensive national speech

networks on a cost per listener hour basis

[]

Source: BBC Executive Priorities and Summary Workplan for 2011/12‟; RAJAR; talkSPORT accounts

8.1.5. To attempt to explore the reasons for the cost disparities between 5 Live and

talkSPORT (aside from those which are explained by differences in service

objectives), and to understand whether 5 Live is indeed operating efficiently, we

have over the last year attempted to engage with the BBC executives for

benchmarking radio production efficiency with the commercial radio sector. We

urged the BBC to extend the scope of the 2011 review of the BBC‟s popular music

networks undertaken by John Myers to include 5 Live, and we also offered our

strong support for a proposed study involving Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, which

was ultimately not pursued by BBC management earlier this year.

8.1.6. We continue to believe that, subject to suitable methodology and timing, there

would be value in conducting a benchmarking exercise between 5 Live and

talkSPORT. Prior to submitting our response, we understood from the BBC Trust that

it preferred not to receive detailed benchmarking data as part of this review. We

have therefore restricted ourselves to highlighting some key areas of potential

production cost disparity between 5 Live and talkSPORT:

Production staff: It is our understanding that 5 Live employs considerably

more production staff on any given programme than talkSPORT. A

daytime programme on talkSPORT typically employs [] full-time

production staff, whereas the number employed at 5 Live is typically

considerably higher.

Football commentators: When commentating on football matches

(although typically not other sports fixtures, such as minority sports), 5 Live

employs two lead commentators (who split commentating duties over the

course of the game) in addition to a co-commentator / summariser. For

instance, in the 2010/11 season, Alan Green often shared commentating

duties for Premier League clashes with another commentator such as Mike

Ingham. talkSPORT only ever employs one lead commentator (in 2010/11


this was normally Sam Matterface), which is also the approach pursued by

the BBC on television. Our approach does not attract any negative

feedback from our listeners. The BBC has never explained why it deems it

necessary to employ two lead commentators for football commentaries

on radio, when a single commentator is judged sufficient on BBC television

and on commercial radio. It is worth noting that football commentators

can earn considerable sums. This disparity raises clear value for money

questions.

Football commentary – on-location production: [].

Outside broadcasts: When mounting an outside broadcast (OB), or

providing on-location sports commentary, talkSPORT typically sends [] to

the OB location. Our observation is that 5 Live often sends additional

presenters, as well as separate producers and engineers. This inevitably

results in higher staff, travel and accommodation costs. At the FIFA 2010

World Cup, talkSPORT sent []. It is our understanding that BBC radio sent

considerably more, despite potential synergies associated with having a

parallel TV presence in South Africa.

News: We note the finding from John Myers‟ report on Production

Efficiency at the BBC‟s popular music stations that „Newsbeat‟ employs 52

full time staff, in addition to its own technical and production personnel,

whilst Radio 2 has a team of announcers who read the news on the hour

(outside of breakfast) but do not write any of the news material

themselves. talkSPORT‟s newsreaders also research and write the news

bulletins that they present on-air, whilst it is our understanding that 5 Live‟s

production approach may be closer to the Radio 2 model103.

Distribution and support costs: Myers also found that, in relation to the

BBC‟s popular music stations, the allocated costs for “housing, general

services, transmitters, finance, royalty payments, provision of news, etc.”

were “high compared with what a reasonable practitioner would expect

to see within the accounts of any commercial operation, even allowing

for the relevance of scale”. This analysis appears also to apply to 5 Live,

which spends [] as talkSPORT, despite having very similar distribution

arrangements (multi-frequency MW network, national DAB, DTV and

internet)104.

Marketing: We note that 5 Live mounts regular marketing campaigns,

including television marketing campaigns created by an external agency.

[].

8.1.7. These examples all point to areas of expenditure in which 5 Live is potentially less

efficient than is necessary in order to deliver its service licence remit.

8.1.8. With this in mind, we reiterate our willingness to participate in a future cost

benchmarking exercise involving 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra, and also urge the

BBC Trust to ensure that both services are fully included within the scope of the

BBC‟s Delivering Quality First efficiency programme. Not only will this ensure that

the BBC delivers the best possible value to licence fee payers, it will also help to

minimise the BBC‟s negative competitive impact within the wider commercial

market in which it operates.

103 John Myers, „Synergies within BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra and 6 Music‟, May 2011 104 John Myers, „Synergies within BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra and 6 Music‟, May 2011


8.1.9. Our concern that 5 Live might be excluded from aspects of the BBC‟s Delivering

Quality First programme arises from comments by BBC North Director Peter

Salmon in Ariel. Salmon stated that the BBC would not be “moving anyone [to

Salford] to make them redundant”, suggesting that 5 Live staff may be afforded a

level of job security unavailable to BBC staff at other locations – or even that the

reduction to other BBC service budgets may be more severe than experienced

by 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra105.

8.2. The BBC should make a meaningful reduction in its radio sports rights spending and

commit to avoid acquiring sports rights on an exclusive basis

8.2.1. One further key area where it is possible to identify inefficiency at 5 Live relates to

expenditure on sports rights. As noted above, the BBC has a number of

inappropriate targets to dominate the

sports radio market, including a target for

62% of people to rate 5 Live as best for

sport on radio. Achieving these targets

essentially requires the BBC to obtain more

sports rights than any other broadcaster.

The targets also provide the BBC with an

incentive to acquire rights on an exclusive

basis.

8.2.2. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the Premier League‟s revenue from radio

rights over three years is £42m, of which it is likely that the vast majority comes

from the BBC. []106.[] access for the BBC to four of the Premier League‟s most

attractive rights packages (out of a total of seven available) – packages which

would otherwise be offered on a free to air basis by commercial stations. As we

highlighted in ‎6.2, 5 Live is not required by its service licence to deliver the volume

of football commentary it currently provides. This indicates that the BBC currently

spends more on radio sports commentary rights than it needs to.

8.2.3. As part of the BBC‟s original Strategy Review proposals, the BBC proposed

capping its sports rights spending “at an average of 9p in every licence fee

pound”. The BBC‟s objective in making this proposal was to “make its behaviour

more predictable in a volatile and competitive market”107. Our response to the

BBC Strategy Review consultation outlined our support for action to control BBC

spending on sports rights, as our experience indicates that the BBC remains the

most powerful player in radio commentary rights negotiations.

8.2.4. Unfortunately, further detail has not materialised, and at any rate the BBC‟s failure

to make a targeted proposal within radio meant that 5 Live would have

remained free of any meaningful commitment to control its sports rights

expenditure even under this proposed pan-BBC cap. Radio commentary rights

are cheaper than television rights, comprising only a small portion of overall BBC

Sport rights expenditure. As a result, this pledge would allow the BBC to fund

substantial increases in its radio sports rights budget via small reductions in

television sports rights spending.

105 Ariel, „Ready for a new beginning‟, May 2011 106 MTM London, „The BBC‟s processes for the management of sports rights‟, March 2011 107 BBC, „BBC Strategy Review: Putting Quality First‟, March 2010, p. 55

“We still have an extremely

large sports rights budget

available to us"

Adrian Van Klaveren, October 2010


BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra service licence amendments – Value for

money

xxvii. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra should maximise their cost efficiency by avoiding

production expenditure which is unnecessary to delivering their respective

service licences

xxviii. 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra management should explore opportunities to

benchmark spending against the commercial sector

xxix. The BBC’s ongoing annual spending on radio sports rights should reflect a

meaningful reduction on 2010/11 spending levels, with the precise reduction

to be agreed with the BBC Trust

xxx. BBC radio should waive its right to exclusivity on any sports rights package

which it acquires by seeking to have exclusivity provisions removed from the

contracts it signs with rights owners

8.2.5. Action on radio sports rights spending is now clearly overdue. At a time when the

BBC is reportedly preparing to reduce service budgets by around 20%, we

propose that the BBC should make a meaningful reduction in its radio sports rights

spending, at a level to be agreed with the BBC Trust. This suggestion is deliberately

focused on expenditure / value for money, rather than the BBC‟s sports rights

acquisition processes, given that the latter is out of scope for this review.

8.2.6. A further point relates to exclusivity. Further to the BBC Trust‟s ruling on this point in

2009, and as outlined in ‎6.2.5 – ‎6.2.6, it remains our view that the BBC should do

more to ensure that its participation in exclusive rights tenders does not lead to

price inflation for radio commentary rights. In its 2010 Strategy Review document

the BBC made a commitment that it would not actively seek exclusivity, except in

exceptional circumstances. We fail to understand why it would ever be in the

public interest for BBC radio to actively seek exclusivity over sports rights and urge

the BBC Trust to clarify this point.

8.2.7. We maintain that BBC radio is yet to make a meaningful commitment in relation

to exclusivity. The BBC Trust‟s October 2009 statement contained a specific

encouragement for the BBC to identify alternatives to acquiring rights on an

exclusive basis. This goes much further than simply encouraging the BBC not to

seek exclusivity (which we have never understood the BBC to do).

8.2.8. Using licence fee funds to ensure that only BBC Radio has access to a particular

sporting fixture reduces the value generated for licence fee payers. Commercial

radio is available on the same free to air basis as the BBC, so exclusive BBC

access to sporting fixtures simply restricts the choice of sports coverage available

to radio listeners. We therefore propose that BBC radio should waive its right to

exclusivity on any sports rights package which it acquires by seeking to have

exclusivity provisions removed from the contracts it signs with rights owners. We

believe that this is within the BBC‟s gift to implement and contend that the current

system gives rise to significant potential for overspending and inefficiency.

BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports...

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