With England’s World Cup opening game becoming the most-watched programme of the year so far, radio coverage seems on course to hit new heights too.
BBC Radio 5 Live and TalkSport are both broadcasting all the tournament’s games and, although figures are not yet out, report that listeners have been engaging more than ever with their shows.
Whether it is the feel-good factor of England’s first win or changes such as bringing in more female commentators remains to be seen, but the 5 Live controller, Jonathan Wall, said there is “an extraordinary level of interest”.
He said that despite the rise in rivals such as social media or streaming services audiences still want live events. Viewers across the BBC’s coverage on television are around 10-20% higher than predicted and radio is also benefiting. “There’s huge digital innovation and growth in media but it shows that live events still resonate,” Wall said.
The TalkSport national radio controller, Liam Fisher, said: “Online listening is up quite sizeably, it’s around 25% to 30% up, and calls and messages to us are up; it’s very, very busy. The feedback to what we are doing has been very positive.”
Fisher said that, if England does badly, that usually creates a “sizeable reaction” but, as the average audience of 13.8m for England’s opening match against Tunisia showed, what Wall called a “feelgood factor” seems to be at play, with listeners wanting some escapism from the recent run of bad news stories.
His channel has tried to accentuate the “fun” with a “freshness of tone” which has included turning over the 5 Live schedule between 8.30am and 9am to Robbie Savage’s World Cup Breakfast.
The entertaining mix of knowledge, humour and guests has gone down well with viewers and put it in the iTunes Top 10 chart.Savage’s mum also features on the show, giving her final score predictions, which have been praised as “spot on” by Terry Butcher.
“Putting on something like that is quite brave,” Wall said. “But we’ve got hundreds of messages in support of it, so that’s positive. It’s fun. People don’t want non-stop analysis. We have a responsibility as a public service broadcaster to do the tournament as broadly as possible.”
Both stations’ coverage of this tournament have featured more women: 5 Live’s female presenters, pundits and commentators are Kelly Cates, Caroline Barker, Rachel Burden, Alex Scott and Vicki Sparks – who this week became the first woman to commentate on a World Cup match on British TV.
Wall said he was “really disappointed” and “shocked” at some of the “lazy comments” from some male journalists about women pundits. Wall said: “For us it’s not a news story as they’ve been part of our commentary team for ages. Things like that damage people’s confidence and drag us back to the dark ages.”
Fisher said there had been “a kind of fear” that changing the tradition of featuring only male ex-players “will not always get reaction you want” but “we’ve tried out a few different things, such as working with [England international] Eni Aluko. She’s been very well‑received, she’s got great knowledge about the game. Having her and Stuart Pearce together is a fantastic combination and has been well-received by listeners.” TalkSport mainstays include Mark Saggers, Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs, alongside the former players Ray Parlour, Matt Holland and Ally McCoist.
However, TalkSport has had some complaints when technical issues affected live streaming of three games. “We had a couple of issues in the stadium but it happens to all the channels, BBC, ITV etc. We don’t have the resources of some others but the idea we’re sort of held together by gaffer tape and commentate with a couple of tin cans and a bit of wire is nonsense. It’s always going to be part of any tournament.”
The majority of the time the BBC is based in stadiums for commentary, led by John Murray and Ian Dennis with punditry from such as Chris Waddle, Pat Nevin and Terry Butcher, though it sometimes commentates from studios. “If it is a studio-based commentary we make it clear,” said Wall. “We are at the majority of games and I think TalkSport are too; we’re always honest about it. We’ve been sensible and not spent a lot of money sending [reporters] to cities where it is going to be hugely expensive.”
Where the two stations differ is, as Fisher put it, “we live and breathe the World Cup … we don’t just take over the station”.
Whereas 5 Live is a news and sport station, “most people are drawn in at different times of the day to TalkSport and stories break at different times so we’ve got that luxury … if you want the World Cup, that’s what we are doing all of the time”.
The TalkSport presenter Tom Latchem added: “A lot of the beauty of TalkSport is it comes from a place of passion and fun and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. [It] brings fun and edginess to its coverage. But it also gives people a voice.”
Wall concluded: “It’s been our best-ever coverage so far probably; we’ve listened to what our audience need. We need to reflect the sense of enjoyment … sometimes we can over-analyse.”
With fans as pumped up as the inflatable unicorns in the England team’s swimming pool, expected warm weather when England play again on Sunday may boost radio audiences even more, with people listening outside in the sunshine.
However, as Wall pointed out, things can change in a second: “One England defeat and that will change the mood of the nation.”