Research carried out by the University’s Centre for Journalism (CfJ) has found that BBC Radio 5 Live did not meet Ofcom’s requirement that 75% of its broadcast output should consist of news and current affairs during 2018.
Research by the CfJ shows the output was 48.28% on weekdays and 36.62% at weekends. Their calculations show that 5 Live’s output in 2018 was 55.05% non-news and 44.95% news.
Head of the Centre, Professor Tim Luckhurst, a former Assistant Editor at 5 Live and a senior member of the team that designed and launched the station, said: ‘The role of news has never been more important to democratic societies. It is crucial that the public has excellent access to factual, accurate journalism. BBC Radio 5 Live was created to provide such journalism. Our research demonstrates that it is no longer fulfilling all of its commitments as a news provider. We think our findings are important both for the BBC and for its new regulator, Ofcom.’
The CfJ report Assessing the Delivery of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Public Service Commitments is the result of a research grant by News UK and Ireland Ltd, carried out to coincide with Ofcom’s assumption of its duties as the BBC’s new regulator. Primary listening took place between 26 February 2018 and 14 October 2018. Key findings include:
- BBC Radio 5 Live allocates less than half of its schedule to information, investigation and analysis.
- Its primary purposes do not include promoting social empathy or providing a public forum for dialogue.
- 5 Live has ceased to be a news and sport station. It is a sport and talk station with a fierce commitment to sport and a lesser, legacy commitment to news.
- Its news coverage reveals an appetite for entertainment, celebrity and music stories in preference to public affairs.
- Listeners tune-in primarily for coverage of and conversation about sport, primarily, football.
- Much of the station’s best news output is transmitted outside peak audience hours.
- Radio 5 Live is used as a platform to promote other BBC channels and services. It is particularly committed to the promotion of podcasts hosted by sports personalities.
Assessing the Delivery of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Public Service Commitments. Abramis Academic Publishing, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK, 44 pp. ISBN 978-1-84549-558-9 Luckhurst, Tim and Cocking, Ben and Reeves, Ian and Bailey, Rob (2019).