City AM: BBC sports bulletin cuts show how crowded sports broadcasting has become

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City AM has a column by Eddie Gold, chief executive and founder of The Gold Studios, about the BBC's decision to drop lunchtime and overnight sports bulletins on its news channel. It is a cost cutting move, but he argues it also says a lot about how sports media has changed. For decades, broadcasters had a near monopoly on sports coverage. Now they are competing with a huge range of alternatives

Fans no longer need to wait for a scheduled bulletin to find out what happened. Transfer news comes from personalities like Fabrizio Romano on social media, and every club has YouTube channels and podcasts dissecting each match. Gold says the big question is what happens when the audience reaches for the remote after the final whistle. These days there are endless options beyond a traditional studio show

He highlights an imbalance in the industry. Commercial broadcasters pay huge sums for live rights, while independent creators can build big audiences talking about the same matches without paying anything for rights. Live rights remain valuable, but they cannot keep outdated studio formats alive on their own. That is a tough position for traditional broadcasters to be in. Rights fees have climbed for years, so the pressure keeps growing

His suggestion is for broadcasters to invest in development teams that keep audiences engaged all season. He points to the BBC's YouTube efforts as promising, but says online content needs a different approach, staying responsive to what viewers want rather than following rigid formats planned far in advance. That links nicely with the MPs' recommendation that the BBC should be allowed to make original content for YouTube

I barely watch scheduled sports bulletins any more, and my guess is that most people here are the same. Where do you get your sports news and analysis now? Are fan YouTube channels better than traditional coverage? And is the BBC right to cut bulletins, or will it lose relevance?

The BBC's bulletin cuts show how crowded sports broadcasting has becomewww.cityam.com