The BBC will have neither radio nor TV coverage of this year’s Boat Race in a broadcast rarity for the best part of a century.
Commercial station Times Radio has secured the radio rights just six months after the corporation lost television rights to Channel 4.
The BBC had long been seen as the home of the Boat Race, contested by Oxford and Cambridge universities, having first broadcast radio coverage of it in the mid-1920s.
Corporation budgets cannot be blamed for the radio departure given Times Radio is said to be picking up the rights for free. As part of the agreement, the new station must promote the contest around its live coverage.
The Boat Race has signed with commercial broadcasters for TV and radio just once before. ITV had the TV contract from 2005-09, while LBC had radio rights from 2005-10.
Channel 4 has a five-year deal for event which was first shown on BBC television in 1938.
The radio deal comes after sources close to talks told Telegraph Sport last October that the BBC’s director of sport appeared to show “very little enthusiasm” during negotiations.
BBC sources previously countered claims that Alex Kay-Jelski, who arrived as director of sport in 2024, viewed the event as “elitist”.
Insiders at the BBC told Telegraph Sport that a failure to renew rights was based purely on concerns around return on investment.
However, another source close to talks said: “The head of sport showed very little enthusiasm, believing that a showcase for London, the UK and two of our top universities is elitist.”