Talk Radio Breaks BBC Exclusivity On FA Football Rights

The BBC and Talk Radio are to share the radio broadcasting rights for the FA Cup and England’s home football internationals for the next three years, it was announced yesterday.

Until now, the FA Cup has been exclusively broadcast by the BBC, on Radio 5, and England home internationals have been under exclusive contract to the BBC and Capital Radio. Kelvin MacKenzie, Talk’s chief executive, was triumphant at the acquisition, and said that the development “not only marks Talk Radio coming of age but the arrival of commercial radio on an equal playing field where it is allowed to compete openly.”

MacKenzie made no secret of his contempt for the BBC at the MediaTel Media Question Time conference last month, claiming that it monopolises the media industry and is anti-competitive. With this week’s announcement, the charismatic CEO expressed a commitment to continue to compete with the BBC for sports rights.

Talk Radio will kick off this year’s football season with live coverage of the FA Charity Shield on 8 August, and the BBC will continue broadcasting the FA Cup on BBC 5 Live. Roger Mosey, controller of Radio 5, commented: “5 Live has the best portfolio of sport in British broadcasting. We’re determined to keep it that way, and nobody can beat our coverage of live football and all of the big national sports events.”

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