Five Live lose some Live Matches

[Lighthouse]

BBC Radio 5 live has lost the rights to two of its football commentary packages for the next three years to commercial rival TalkSport.

The station will no longer provide commentary to some Saturday afternoon matches and some weekday evening games.

5 live controller Adrian Van Klaveren said he was "delighted" to retain four other football packages.

But he said there would be "significantly less" Premiership football on the network next season.

"We will need to work hard to compensate for this, including thinking about what this means for parts of our programme schedule," added Mr Van Klaveren.

Of the football coverage 5 live has regained the rights to, he said: "We know how important live football, above all the Premier League, is to our audience so it is very good news that we will continue to offer 5 live listeners the fullest football coverage."

Commercial broadcaster Absolute Radio, meanwhile, was awarded second choice Saturday afternoon matches at the expense of TalkSport.