Dyke brands MacKenzie 'pathetic'

Kelvin MacKenzie, Talksport Radio boss, has come under fire from BBC Director-General Greg Dyke today.

Just a few days prior, MacKenzie had attacked the Corporation of it's dominance of radio sport broadcasting.

Mr Dyke said: "To hear him whingeing about competition now is a bit pathetic. Our aim is not to put TalkSport out of business.

"It appears that Kelvin wants us to withdraw from the market now he's there. We don't mind competition, but there's no way we are going to step aside from something we know our listeners value, enjoy and rely on just so that Kelvin or anyone else can make lots of money.

"Firstly, we were in the sports radio market first and still dominate it - listeners prefer Five Live to TalkSport by a large number.

"Secondly, we were there when Kelvin decided to turn his radio station away from the talk franchise it was originally awarded and into the area of sports. When he took that decision Kelvin knew the market he was coming into.

"We're only interested in providing licence fee payers with the level of sports coverage they have come to expect from the BBC. It's something we do rather well."

Turning towards digital radio, Mr Dyke added: "Like the commercial sector, we're taking quite an expensive punt that digital radio will be central to the way radio is consumed in the future.

"But for it to succeed we have to find ways to get the price of receivers down to levels affordable to listeners.

"We can't use public money to directly subsidise receivers, but we can, and want to invest in the only other thing that will help digital radio fly - new, high quality services. Our new digital radio plans, if approved by the secretary of state at the DCMS, will do this."