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BBC set to launch sports channel

By Raoul Simons, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 10.02.05

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The BBC has revealed plans to launch its own dedicated sports channel.

A rival to Sky Sports, the proposed service would cover major and minor sports in greater depth than BBC1 and BBC2 manage now.

It could also show live Premier League football should the corporation be successful in breaking Sky's monopoly on TV rights when their contract expires in 2007.

The BBC's director of sport, Peter Salmon, admits to feeling constrained by the broadcaster's public service scheduling demands which often limit TV sports coverage.

He said: "I really feel the frustration of so many minor sports that are aggrieved that the BBC doesn't want them for more than a handful of hours a year. Can you really build financial support through sponsorship when you have that degree of coverage?

"In the course of the next licence period, there should be a really good debate over the BBC and the diversity of its sports provision - including a specialist channel. I think it would be good for the nation's sporting life and good for the BBC as a public service broadcaster if we were in that business. We have just got to get the proposition absolutely right."

With the growth of digital television, the BBC already has nine TV channels but entry into the sports market would be controversial.

When the idea of a BBC sport channel was first mooted in 1999, commercial rivals criticised the move, arguing that it should restrict itself to services which are not provided elsewhere.

Others have suggested that bidding for expensive sports rights is a waste of license-payers' money. Should the BBC press ahead with the new channel, no launch is likely to happen until after 2006 when the organisation's Royal Charter - which guarantees its funding - is due for renewal.