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.

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 2 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 3 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 4 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

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 6

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 7

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 8 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 "Now that the BBC has created, providing them with a continuing, instantly and effectively, an all- comprehensive coverage?”1 news network, would it not be a tremendous waste to un-invent 4.1.2. The BBC was more prepared when the it?" Gulf War started in 1991. Radio 4 News FM, nicknamed „Scud FM‟, sprang into life and Gillian Reynolds, Daily provided dedicated coverage over the Telegraph, 1991 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 9 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. “Being able to tune in and get 4.1.6. 5 Live‟s founders envisaged a broad news the news whenever you like is agenda, but rooted in serious subjects. very important” Abramsky promised to “expand the news agenda so that our audience gains Tony Hall, BBC Managing access to information and discussion of Director of News and Current health, education, technology, Affairs, March 1994 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 10 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 “[5 Live‟s] non-sports chat” could form the basis of a new BBC programmes have been 24-hour television news channel22. redrawing the map of "doing" politics on radio” 4.2.4. 5 Live did occasionally falter in its first decade. In 2001, BBC Governors identified Professor Stephen Barnett, June listener concern that “news coverage was 2002 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 “Both the Richard Bacon and editorial focus. 5 Live‟s Statement of the Victoria Derbyshire Programme Policy (SoPP) for 2010-11 programme have consciously spoke for the first time of “balancing the broadened their agendas to news and sport with engaging respond to listeners‟ interest in entertainment”27. This positioning has also [Entertainment and Comedy].” been reflected on-air and in off-air marketing. As the Guardian‟s radio BBC Statements of Programme correspondent John Plunkett reported in Policy, 2010-11 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 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. “Have you been chased by an 4.3.6. Shennan‟s premise was that audience animal?” interaction had a role to play in 5 Live‟s news output. Examples of this operating at 5 Live interactive topic, as cited its best include the recent interview with on Radio 4 Feedback, June 2011 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 12 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 13 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 "A newspaper consists of just the beginning of 5 Live38. At launch, 5 Live had same number of words, whether promised “more than 40 hours of sports there be any news in it or not." reports a week” (or 24% of the schedule)39. In 2001 Bob Shennan claimed Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754) 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

Production Other speech 2% News 13% 45%

Sport 37% Travel / weather 3% 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 14 „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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 15 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 “News is what somebody range of other topics now covered by 5 somewhere wants to suppress; Live44. This insight also backs up the findings all the rest is advertising.” of independent research undertaken by

BritainThinks which found that 5 Live‟s Lord Northcliffe (1865-1922) 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 16 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’

News Not News Weekly Reach

Danny Bacon / Christian O'Connell (Sat 14% 86% 09.00 - 11.00) 715,000

Fighting Talk (Sat 11.00 - 12.00) 17% 83% 545,000

Richard Bacon (Mon - Thurs 14.00 - 16.00) 20% 80% 1,170,000

Stephen Nolan (Fri - Sun 22.00 - 01.00) * 32% 68% 727,000

Up All Night (Mon - Sun 01.00-05.00) * 32% 68% 598,000

Tony Livesey (Mon - Thurs 22.30-01.00) * 32% 68% 867,000

Gabby Logan (12.00-14.00 Mon - Fri) 35% 65% 1,432,000

Victoria Derbyshire (10.00-12.00 Mon - Fri) 47% 53% 1,493,000

5 Live Breakfast - Your Call (Mon - Fri 09.00 49% 51% - 10.00) 1,298,000

5 Live Investigates (Sun 21.00 - 22.00) 67% 33% 116,000

Weekend Breakfast (Sat 06.00 - 09.00, Sun 73% 27% 06.00 - 08.30) 1,080,000

5 Live Drive (Mon - Fri 16.00 - 19.00) 79% 21% 2,032,000

Pienaar's Politics (Sun 19.00 - 20.00) 85% 15% 248,000

Morning Reports / Wake Up To Money 91% 9% (Mon - Sun 05.00 - 06.00) 561,000

5 Live Breakfast (Mon - Fri 06.00 - 09.00) 91% 9% 2,412,000

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 17 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 18  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

72% 73% 65% 63%

48% 43% 32% 25%

Defined as 'news Considered to be a 'news Breakfast and Drive Sport programmes programme' by BBC programme' by at least management 45% of 5 Live listeners

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

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 19 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'?

96% Details of a crime committed in the UK 4% 94% Information about international politics or current events 6% 93% Information about UK politics and current events 7% 88% City, business and financial issues 12% 88% Sports headlines 12% 78% Traffic and travel update 22% 78% Weather forecast 22% 73% Live update from a sports event 27% 69% Interview with a politician 31% 61% Consumer affairs issues (e.g. personal finance, spending… 39% 52% Human interest stories (e.g. real life stories about… 48% 46% Live sports commentary 54% News 46% Phone-in about politics, crime or current events 54% Not news 37% Preview of a sports fixture 63% 35% Interview with a sportsperson 65% 34% Music, book or film review 66% 30% Entertainment stories 70% 20% Phone-in about sporting events 80% 20% Stories about celebrities 80% 17% A funny or interesting story from a presenter 83% 17% Interview with a celebrity 83% 16% A funny or interesting story from a listener 84% 16% Discussion about what was on TV last night 84% 10% Comedy 90%

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)

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 20 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 “If the BBC won‟t define news, recognised as an academic expert in can production teams be clear journalism. about what they are producing?” 5.3.2. Britten listened to a complete week‟s th th output from Monday 9 – Sunday 15 Robin Britten, Visiting Lecturer in May and drew independent conclusions Journalism, University of about the delivery of news. This week was Staffordshire, July 2011 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 21  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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 22 Figure 5. Robin Britten analysis of news content within individual 5 Live programmes

Breakfast (06.00 - 10.00/09.00/08.30 Mon - Sun) 76.1% Victoria Derbyshire (10.00 - 12.00 Mon - Fri) 83.0% Sheila Fogarty (12.00 - 14.00 Mon - Fri) 64.9% R Bacon / Mayo & Kermode (14.00 - 16.00 Mon - Fri) 21.1% Drive (16.00 - 19.00 Mon - Fri) 79.4% T Livesey / S Nolan (22.00/22.30 - 01.00 Mon - Fri) 58.7% 5 Live Sport weekdays (19.00 - 22.00/22.30 Mon - Fri) 4.1% Danny Baker / Christian O'Connell (09.00 - 11.00 Sat) 11.5% Fighting Talk (11.00 - 12.00 Sat) 10.8% 5 Live Sport Saturday (12.00 - 18.00 Sat) 5.0% Saturday Edition (20.00 - 21.00 Sat) 40.5% Sportsweek (08.30 - 09.30 Sun) 6.0% Tony Livesey Sunday Morning (09.30 - 11.00 Sun) 92.0% The Back End of Next Week (11.00 - 12.00 Sun) 9.0% 5 Live Sport Sunday (12.00 - 19.00 Sun) 4.0% Pienaar's Politics (19.00 - 20.00 Sun) 89.1% On the Money (20.00 - 21.00 Sun) 91.8% Men's Hour (21.00 - 22.00 Sun) 8.0% Up All Night (01.00 - 05.00 Mon - Sun) 54.10%

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 “I‟m not sure that a lot of programmes could be described as „news people would disagree that programmes‟. Richard Bacon‟s Richard Bacon‟s programme, programme is described as having “by far entertaining as it is, does not the lowest news content of the daytime necessarily qualify as a news output”, which is attributed to the fact that programme – hard news or soft “the spine of the programme is the news.” celebrity guest interview”, with guests apparently “straight off the celebrity PR John Plunkett, MediaGuardian podcast, April 2011 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.”

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 23 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.” “By far the majority of subjects 5.3.14. Britten‟s commentary on Up All Night listeners are encouraged to call identifies the dilemma which lies at the about are hardly even tenuously heart of much of 5 Live‟s output, but also related to the current news begins to point towards a solution. Britten agenda” finds that “for the most part their starting point is news; interesting and important Robin Britten on Tony Livesey‟s stories from around the world”. However programme, July 2011 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 24  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:

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 25 Figure 6. Robin Britten recommendation on 5 Live news definitions.

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).

5.3.18. 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”.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 26 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 “Radio Five Live‟s unique blend launched in February 1995 was Talk Radio of news, current affairs and sport UK, offering a format which distinguished distinguishes it from commercial itself from 5 Live by its focus on phone-ins competitors” and „shock jocks‟. So it was that a decade

later, the BBC‟s submission to the BBC BBC Charter Review submission, Charter Review was able to boast that May 2005 “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/

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 27 Figure 7. The BBC dominates UK speech radio as no other UK media market

85%

49%

37% 34%

3%

TV Online Music radio Speech radio Multiplatform news

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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 28 Figure 8. BBC-style „built format‟ speech radio vs commercial-style talk radio

BBC-style „built format‟ Commercial-style talk radio speech 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; Mix of news / general interest serious tone topics; lighter tone with use of humour and entertainment Journalism Shapes news agenda and Reflects and follows news breaks new stories agenda Resources Large production teams; Small production teams; more extensive news resource 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 29 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 “the distinctiveness of BBC News audience, against 28% for 5 Live. This Channel should lie in its ambition clearly demonstrates that BBC services to offer a broad, varied, serious offering “broad, varied, serious and and analytical news agenda” analytical news” 24 hours a day can

appeal to a broad audience57. BBC News service licence  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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 30 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, "The BBC should be striving to such as that TV, entertainment and produce the best journalism in celebrity stories are considered „not news‟ the world" by a clear majority of 5 Live‟s audience. 5.6.2. This approach also reflects the BBC‟s Mark Thompson, Speech at strategy as outlined in its „Putting Quality 'Media and Telco: 2011 and First‟ review, in which the BBC spoke of a beyond', January 2011 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 31 Live is failing to exploit the full value of the unrivalled journalistic tools at its disposal.

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)

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 32 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)

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 33 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 “Britain already has a sports to toe, Five Live wins”64. He justified 5 station and it‟s called Five Live” Live‟s exclusive access to Premier League commentary by arguing that rivals were Mike Lewis, Deputy Controller 5 free to acquire the rights to less popular Live, January 2000 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 34 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 “Why is 5 Live increasingly scheduled at 3pm on Saturday afternoons, resembling talkSPORT? Blokeish and European and International fixtures presenters, whether male or spread over a narrower range of weekly female, appear to be under an timeslots. As the desire of pay per view edict to talk about football channels to offer a daily schedule of wherever possible”. football has dispersed kick-off times throughout the week, 5 Live has taken the 5 Live listener, Radio 4 decision to follow mirror the strategy of Feedback, June 2011 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 35 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 36 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 “The service licence does not sports / sports that are less often covered provide clear commitments as by other broadcasters. to the frequency and range of 6.4.3. In its ruling on our complaint about 5 Live‟s coverage of minority and service licence compliance in April 2011, secondary sport” the BBC Trust found that the service licence “does not provide clear BBC Trust, General Appeals commitments as to the frequency and Panel Ruling, April 2011 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 37 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 “Radio Five Live has made a is particularly surprising given the commitment to increase the commitment given by BBC management range of sports covered in Chiles to do just that in 2001. As part of a report on Saturday and Sport on Five” for BBC Governors entitled „BBC Listens‟, it was discovered that 5 Live‟s sports output BBC Annual Report 2000/01 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 38 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 39 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 Adults in the higher ABC1 social also poorly positioned to provide the grades are significantly more prominent platform for minority and likely than adults in the lower Olympic sports on UK radio that we C2DE social grades to listen to propose. This is partly because it lacks the digital radio (37% vs. 25%) resource advantages available to the BBC. These advantages include the large BBC Trust Purpose Remit Study, number of sports experts employed by July 2011 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 40 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 “The public want a range of League has strongly skewed its appeal programmes from the BBC, towards football fans. BritainThinks found including popular ones, but they that 86% of 5 Live listeners are interested in don't want a BBC which is driven Premier League football, which was at all by ratings or almost three times the proportion among commercialism or by any form the general adult population in a of competitiveness other than separate survey for the Premier League the urge to be the best”. using the same Populous research panel. Similarly, more than 80% of 5 Live listeners Mark Thompson, August 2010 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 41 Figure 10. 5 Live‟s listeners are interested in a wide range of sports

Q. How interested would you say you are in SUM: Very interested /Somewhat each of the following sports? 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 42 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, “5 Live is the station Gene Hunt male listeners to the BBC‟s radio sport would listen to on the radio programmes outnumbered female while roaring around in his listeners by nine to one, with Jenny Quattro and crashing into Abramsky outlining her hope that 5 Live cardboard boxes” would “change that balance to six to four”. Plans were announced to “attract Jan Moir, July 2010 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

76%

74%

72%

70%

68%

66%

64%

62%

2002 Q22002 Q42003 Q22003 Q42004 Q22004 Q42005 Q22005 Q42006 Q22006 Q42007 Q22007 Q42008 Q22008 Q42009 Q22009 Q42010 Q22010 Q4

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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 43 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 44 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 45 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.

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 46 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 47 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 “It is important that the service is put to air. The Secretary of State‟s and continues to be, distinctive approval notice described the proposed from competitors and maintains service – then named as Five Live Sports its role as an overflow service Plus – as “a distinctive, well-defined from existing BBC radio” service, which will broadcast only when it can make better use of existing sports Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP, rights already obtained for BBC radio”. The Secretary of State for Culture Government added that “It is important Media and Sport, September that the service is and continues to be, 2001 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 48  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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 49 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 “5 Live Sports Extra will be unavailable to other rights owners. further developed and 7.1.7. We urge the BBC Trust to use this review to promoted as the home of all investigate and clarify whether 5 Live forms of cricket, with the Ashes Sports Extra has indeed acquired its own as the centrepiece” rights, and on what basis, as it appears from the above statements by BBC BBC Statements of Programme management that the service is not Policy, 2009/10 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 50 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 51 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 52

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)

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 53 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 [].

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 54 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 55 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 56 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 “We still have an extremely 62% of people to rate 5 Live as best for large sports rights budget sport on radio. Achieving these targets available to us" essentially requires the BBC to obtain more sports rights than any other broadcaster. Adrian Van Klaveren, October The targets also provide the BBC with an 2010 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 57 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 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

UTV Media (GB) response to „BBC Trust review of Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra‟ – July 11 58