talkSPORT Tackles BBC And FA Over Football Rights
Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT is attempting to take the Football Association to task for selling national broadcast rights to FA Cup games exclusively to the BBC, in a move that it claims damages its advertising and sponsorship revenues.
The national speech-based station has lodged a formal complaint with media regulator Ofcom, claiming that selling all the games to the BBC destroys competition between talkSPORT and Five Live to provide live coverage of the competition.
It also argues that the FA’s decision to bundle together the broadcast rights for all matches over the next four seasons creates an artificially high-price that puts the package out of the reach of any UK commercial broadcaster.
talkSPORT’s bid for a limited number of games failed in the face of the BBC’s bigger spending power. The station claims that being “locked out” of the competition for the next four seasons will limit its ability to attract larger audiences and damage advertising revenues as a result.
The radio station also claims that that under the exclusive deal with Five Live, most of the games in rounds one to five will not be broadcast, restricting choice for the listener. talkSPORT wants the rights to be sold seperatly so it can bid against Five Live on a game-by-game basis.
Commenting on the issue, talkSPORT managing director, Michael Franklin, said: “This deal, which prevents broadcast of most of the FA Cup games, makes a mockery of the FA’s claims that it wanted to broaden the appeal of the FA Cup competition and to develop innovative ideas for its broadcast.”
He added: “If they allowed free competition for the rights on a game by game basis, then the market would adjust the price of those rights to levels within the reach of a commercial broadcaster such as talkSPORT. Not only that, but Five Live would be able to broadcast one game, while talkSPORT broadcasts another, providing healthy competition that affords the listener more choice.”
talkSPORT is also disputing BBC Five Live’s successful bid to broadcast live Premiership football commentary for the next three years. The broadcaster claims the BBC has indulged in anti-competitive bidding and is monopolising Premiership football commentary rights by grossly outgunning its competitors (see Wireless Group Targets BBC With Legal Action).
talkSPORT: 020 7959 7800 www.talksport.co.uk
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