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The report, commissioned by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust and carried out by MTM London Ltd., looked at whether the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's management of its sports rights processes is achieving value for money.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ revised its processes for the acquisition of sports rights following a Trust Fair Trading finding relating to the acquisition of FA Cup rights in 2009.

The report includes a series of recommendations to further strengthen existing acquisition processes, but finds that overall the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's management of sports rights acquisitions is working well. Key findings and recommendations from the report include:

• The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is effectively managing the bidding process, with an experienced team leading negotiations, and bids are routinely analysed to consider whether they represent the best value for money
• The Sports Rights team should document more clearly its approach to assessing the value of a right to competitors, and this should be used in Investment Cases in order to make the process more clearly evidence-based
• The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ did not succeed in winning three of the eight acquisitions attempted during the period covered by the report, suggesting that it is operating at market rates
• The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has a clear set of targets for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sport, with a strong focus on delivering high quality content to all audiences, and the report finds that it has generally been successful in meeting these objectives
• The monitoring of the performance of individual rights against targets should be enhanced – e.g. by creating a 'dashboard' of different measures
• Competitive Impact Assessments (CIAs), which are carried out for potential acquisitions and consider the impact on the market, should become mandatory for all exclusive radio bids in excess of £0.5 million
• Investment Cases are inconsistent in their approach to comparing a proposed acquisition with existing sports rights. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should agree a set of key performance indicators that are used in all cases.

Anthony Fry, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trustee said:

"The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's coverage of major sporting events is valued by the millions of people who view or listen to them every week. But sports rights don't come cheap and the Trust needs to ensure that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is doing everything it can to secure best value for licence fee payers, while bringing them the best in sporting events coverage.

"The Trust welcomes today's review. While it essentially gives the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's processes a clean bill of health, we note the recommendations for improvement and ask the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Executive to set out how they will deliver against them."

The report follows a finding by the Trust's Fair Trading Committee in 2009 in relation to the acquisition of FA Cup radio rights. The Trust found that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's internal processes for ensuring value for money from that acquisition were not followed with as much rigour as might have been expected, and that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ had failed to conduct a proper competitive impact assessment as required under the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Fair Trading Policy. The Trust put sanctions in place at that time, requiring the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Executive to improve processes.

Notes to editors

1. It is the responsibility of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust, under the Royal Charter, to ensure that value for money is achieved by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ through its spending of the licence fee. In order to fulfill this responsibility, the Trust commissions and publishes a series of independent value for money reviews each year. The reviews are undertaken by the NAO or other external agencies
2. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ spent a total of £260 million on sports rights in 2009/10
3. Competitive Impact Assessments (CIAs) set out how the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ will comply with its fair trading obligations
4. An Investment Case sets out the business case for securing a particular right. Investment Cases for sports rights are produced by ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sport and submitted to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Executive's Finance Committee for approval
5. More information on the work of the Trust can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust
6. MTM London is a research and strategy consultancy specialising in media, telecommunications and technology.