BBC And Talksport Reach Agreement Over Sporting Rights

BBC and Talksport have reached an out-of-court settlement over the broadcasting rights to major sporting events. Talksport can continue to broadcast off-tube commentary of major sporting fixtures even if the BBC holds the rights to the event.

The disagreement between the two arose over broadcasting rights to the Euro 2000 championship, to which Talksport claimed to have ‘live’ coverage, when in fact its commentaries came from watching the event on television (see TalkSport Signs Up Sponsors). The BBC, which owned the live rights to the event, was alerted to the false claims of Talksport by a story on Newsline (see TalkSport Is “Misleading Listeners”, Says BBC) and took the rival sports station to court over the issue.

The two failed to reach an agreement at the high court, however (see BBC And TalkSport Both Claim Victory In Live Commentary Battle). Today’s out-of-court settlement allows Talksport to comment on events to which it does not hold the rights as long as it made it clear how the commentary was being produced.

Talksport will now exercise its right to comment on sporting events every time it is excluded from the bidding process, as it was during Euro 2000 and the Sydney Olympics. It has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission in relation to the activities of the European Broadcasting Union, which sells TV and radio rights bundled together.

Talksport: 020 959 7800 BBC Radio: 020 7580 4468