talkSPORT Announce Significant New Deal With Premier League

Radio broadcaster, talkSPORT, has secured a new deal with the Premier League that will see them hold international audio broadcasting rights for the next four seasons.

The exclusive four year contract allows talkSPORT to broadcast commentary outside Europe on all 380 Barclays Premier League games in multiple languages, including English, Spanish and Mandarin in what represents a huge coup for the company.

Increasingly popular since its launch in January 2000, the platform will now be accessible to sports fans outside Europe, thereby expanding there audience and establishing their brand on a global scale. UTV Media Plc, the company who own the station, will establish a network of global radio partners in markets such as Asia, North America and Africa.

The Barclays Premier League count talkSPORT as an official broadcaster in the UK, where they display up to 64 games a season. The station is believed to be in talks with a number of candidate commercial and distribution partners for the international output.

UTV will be behind any potential investment, with set up and pre-launch costs expected to be in the region of £0.8 million. The contract is expected to result in the service making a loss in the first year of operation of approximately £1.0m, with breakeven expected in the second year and the service is expected to be profitable thereafter.

Scott Taunton, Chief Executive, talkSPORT said: “This is a huge development for talkSPORT which builds on the significant progress the station has made in the UK in recent years.  I’m really excited about the potential for talkSPORT as a global brand, invoking the same passion in listeners and advertisers overseas as it does in the UK. We’ll be expanding our London office studio and production space and I can’t wait to see the buzz on matchdays.”

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “We are extremely pleased to enter into a new international agreement with talkSPORT and welcome them as our new global audio rights partner.

“talkSPORT currently offers excellent Barclays Premier League radio commentary coverage in the UK and we look forward to that being available to millions of fans across the globe with English, Spanish and Mandarin broadcasts in territories outside of Europe for four seasons from 2012/13.

“As we’re seeing in the closing stages of this season the Barclays Premier League is a compelling competition and radio rights are important to ensuring that as many fans as possible can follow the League and their club.”