Talk Protests Against EBU ‘Cartel’ Over Radio Sports Rights

Kelvin MacKenzie, the chairman and chief executive of Talk Radio, has written to the culture secretary Chris Smith and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) to protest against what he calls ‘anti-competitive behaviour by a cartel of European TV and radio broadcasters’, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

MacKenzie is concerned that commercial UK radio stations are being denied the opportunity to compete with the BBC for sports broadcasting rights. Talk’s chief executive is arguing that the radio station needs to be admitted to the EBU in order to be able to compete effectively with the BBC for sports rights. The commercial station failed to gain access to the EBU because it did not have the required mix of programming.

Another suggestion put forward by McKenzie for the ‘illegal cartel’ formed by the EBU is to stop the BBC from participating in it, as the BBC is the only national broadcaster able to access EBU material.

Mackenzie commented: “The EBU is a bureaucratic dinosaur – a European cartel which is strangling competition and choice, favours state broadcasters who need to be dragged into the modern commercial world and forced to compete on a level playing field. It cannot be proper that only the BBC can obtain national radio access to these events.

“It is important for the public interest to make sure that certain sports are far more widely available by TV or radio, and that commercial radio stations are able to compete freely with the BBC and other European broadcasters.”

The commercial TV network ITV yesterday signed a deal for the extended rights to the UEFA Champions League (see Newsline). Both television channels 3 and 4 have much the same rights to EBU material as the BBC and can compete openly for UK transmission rights, but as far as radio is concerned, the BBC is the only broadcaster with access to EBU content.

Talk Radio: 0171 636 1089 ITC: 0171 255 3000