BBC plans to expand 5 Live’s digital sister station, 5 Live Sports Extra, have been ruled offside by the BBC Trust for the second time in four years.
5 Live, which has suffered big declines in its audience over the last year, wanted to turn Sports Extra from an “overspill” station into something resembling a regular broadcaster, including a 9am to 7pm daytime schedule.
But the trust, in its decision published on Thursday, said it would have a “material impact” on commercial rivals such as TalkSport and could “negatively impact” its owner UTV’s plans to launch its own new station, TalkSport 2, next year.
UTV described the proposals as “ill-judged and ill-timed”.
The decision is a blow to 5 Live, coming four years after the BBC Trust rejected a similar suggestion by management.
Although not a formal proposal in 2011, BBC management “discussed with the trust the idea of extending the service licence remit of Sports Extra in order to accommodate some regular daily programming made up of repeats from 5 Live and other BBC stations”.
Back then, the trust said at time of cost savings across the BBC “we do not feel it is the right time to take this suggestion further”.
Media regulator Ofcom, asked to look at the most recent proposals by the trust, concluded that TalkSport could be “particularly affected” by the proposals which would have nearly doubled – by 76% – the amount of content broadcast by Sports Extra.
The station is currently used to broadcast sporting events for which 5 Live does not have the room, or appetite, to fit into its schedule.
The trust said if the BBC still wanted to go ahead with the plans it would have to apply for a full public value test because it constituted a “significant change” to the service.
5 Live had an average weekly audience of 5.3 million listeners in the second quarter of this year, a million fewer than the 6.3 million who tuned in the same period last year and down nearly 2 million from its record high of more than 7 million listeners four years ago.
Sports Extra had an audience of 1.6 million, also in the second quarter of this year.
The BBC in its submission said the cost of expanding the station would be neutral because it would be met from 5 Live’s own budget.
But the trust came to a similar conclusion about the benefits, saying any increased listenership to Sports Extra would be small, and likely to cannibalise the 5 Live audience.
