talkSPORT Partner with TuneIn to Expand Global Reach of Sports Programming

February 29, 2012

TuneIn, a free service that lets people listen to music, sports and news from around the world, and talkSPORT, the United Kingdom’s biggest national commercial sports broadcaster, announced today a strategic partnership to bring talkSPORT’s award-winning lineup of sports conversation and live football to TuneIn listeners.

This new agreement significantly broadens the service’s already-vast selection of sports broadcasting to its more than 30 million listeners.

The partnership provides a platform for further digital growth for talkSPORT, which has one of the most successful online and social media presences of any UK commercial radio station.

Beyond making talkSPORT available via TuneIn, the companies will cooperate on various marketing and advertising initiatives.

talkSPORT is the current Sony Radio Academy UK Radio Station of the Year and has enjoyed significant audience growth in recent years, now reaching 3.2 million listeners a week. talkSPORT is an official partner of the Barclays Premier League, broadcaster of UEFA EURO 2012 and was the exclusive UK rights holder for the IRB Rugby World Cup 2011.

“We are pleased to become TuneIn’s first strategic content partner in the UK,” said Jimmy Buckland, Director of Strategy, talkSPORT. “This partnership builds on our strategy to grow the talkSPORT brand both in the UK and around the world, allowing us to reach out to new listeners with our award-winning line-up of presenters and live sport.”

Kevin Straley, Vice President of Programming, TuneIn, said: “By partnering with talkSPORT, we further enrich the sports fan’s experience and provide access to some of the globe’s top sports programming. Through the addition of talkSPORT’s deep sports coverage to our current offering of more than 50,000 stations, TuneIn continues to deliver on the promise of offering the broadest listening experience in the world.”

by Ismail Uddin