Five Live faces the future

By Emma Saunders
BBC News Online entertainment staff

Alan Green is one BBC Five Live's top football reporters

BBC Radio Five Live celebrates its 10th anniversary on Sunday. BBC News Online looks back at the station's first decade and contemplates its future.

The birth of Radio Five Live was not an easy one - coming just four years after predecessor Radio 5 began its diverse output of children's programmes, rock music, sport and features, many people were concerned about its replacement.

The idea was to create a rolling news and sports service but there was initial opposition to both - news lovers feared for the future of Radio 4, while sports fans wondered how much live coverage they would have to sacrifice.

Increase

But audience figures for Five Live's first year were a healthy average of 4.25 million and it continued to confound the critics with audience figures climbing to six million.

And although the station's output is about 70% news, there has been little complaint from sports fans when a breaking news story has interrupted a live sporting event, as happened when Saddam Hussein was captured last year.

Five Live moved the 9/11 story forward quickly

So what is the secret of its success?

The Independent's media correspondent Ian Burrell thinks much of it is to down to the rise and rise of football.

"The big thing Five Live has benefited from is the fevered interest in football that has emerged over the past 10 to 15 years. Five Live was perfectly positioned to capitalise on this, as Sky was on the TV side," says Mr Burrell.

But he also believes its unique way of presenting news is important.

"Rolling news is a different way of presenting news, there is more flexibility - the station really made its presence felt with the 11 September coverage.

Valuable service

"It was such an image-led event but Five Live had to try and provide analysis quicker because it couldn't rely on images like television could."

As the Prime Minister's former press secretary Alistair Campbell said later: "We weren't initially sure what was happening, we were listening to Five Live along with everyone else."

The Premiership is at the heart of Five Live's coverage

The Daily Telegraph's radio critic, Gillian Reynolds, also values the station's news coverage.

Ms Reynolds confesses to being a big fan of Five Live, describing herself as both a sports fan and a news junkie.

She wrote the first piece for Scud FM, the BBC's experimental rolling news service on the original Radio 5 during the first Gulf war in 1991.

"Five Live has been a great success, a really valuable edition to radio. You know you can tune in when a particular big news story breaks and they get a range of contributions and viewpoints unlike any other station," she says.

Discussion

The station also launched digital channel Five Live Sports Extra two years ago, which can allow live sports coverage to continue if a major story breaks on Five Live.

Interactivity is a key feature of Five Live - the 606 football website is the BBC's biggest message board and the station receives more 3,000 phone calls, emails and texts a day from the public.

Five Live also covered the Rugby World Cup

There has also been talk of moving Five Live's 225 staff from London to Manchester, first raised by the BBC's former director general Greg Dyke during charter renewal discussions.

And a Treasury report earlier this month recommended that the location of BBC staff around the country should be part of the charter renewal negotiotions.

While the idea is only a possibility at present, Five Live controller Bob Shennan says he can see both the pros and cons of moving up north.

"It might be hard to separate our news teams from the heart of BBC news, but the notion of broadcasting around the UK to serve our audiences better is absolutely central to what Five Live is about," he told BBC staff magazine Ariel.

The station has had its own network of regional reporters since it began and more outside broadcasts are planned from beyond the M25.

Praise

But its future may ultimately depend on the renewal of live sports rights - currently it broadcasts more sport reports than any other broadcaster in the world but can it hold on to this enviable position?

The station is looking forward to the opportunity to attract more listeners this summer with coverage of Euro 2004 and the Olympics in Greece.

But the crucial Premiership football rights are up for renewal at the end of this season - negotiations are already under way to secure a new deal.

"Sport is a major part of why Five Live exists - maintaining rights is vital to Five Live's future," says Mr Burrell.

Gillian Reynolds could not tear herself away from the station's Rugby World Cup coverage.

"I couldn't bear to switch off Ian Robertson's Rugby World Cup Final commentary - I didn't want to be distracted from it for a minute," she says.

"Sports rights come and go but if I was selling rights, I'd like to get the best coverage," she adds.

Five Live will be hoping the Premier League agrees.