The Isle of Man’s government-subsidised national sound broadcaster Manx Radio is in danger of losing its long-established status as provider of live TT race commentary and a dedicated-frequency “Radio TT” event station during the festival fortnight.
This possibility was revealed at a recent hearing of the Manx parliament Tynwald’s public service broadcasting committee, which is currently assessing whether the government gets good value for its annual Manx Radio subvention of around £1m.
Addressing the committee, Manx Radio managing director Anthony Pugh told members that protracted negotiations had taken place with the government’s Department of Enterprise (which controls all TT commercial and broadcast rights) over the past year. These concluded with the offer of just a one-year contract for Manx Radio’s current role and no commitment in the longer term.
Pugh went on to say that an agreement was eventually signed only two months before the 2018 TT, leaving his station with insufficient time to find a headline sponsor and therefore increasing its burden of financial risk. He added that the likelihood of TT broadcast commentary and on-air representation going out to competitive tender in future was implicit in the Department of Enterprise position.
Besides live commentary, plus news, interviews and features, aired on its 1368AM channel, Radio TT content is also streamed online to a global audience of race fans. It could therefore be a potentially lucrative asset capable of delivering much greater revenue for the Isle of Man government if licensed to and promoted by a purely commercial broadcaster.