TalkSport has agreed a new deal for international broadcast rights to the Premier League, enabling the station to air 380 games every year live in multiple languages.
The deal, starting in the 2012/13 season and ending in 2015/16, sees TalkSport becoming the global audio partner for the Premier League outside of Europe.
In the biggest development since TalkSport launched in 2000, the UTV Media-owned station will broadcast all 380 Premier League games each season in several languages, including English, Spanish and Mandarin.
The station is already an official broadcast partner to the Premier League in the UK, where it airs 64 games a season under a deal agreed in 2010. The other rights are held by BBC Radio 5 Live and Absolute Radio.
“This is a huge development for TalkSport which builds on the significant progress the station has made in the UK in recent years,” said Scott Taunton, the chief executive of TalkSport, discussing the international deal.
“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 added: “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.”
Starting in August 2012, football fans outside Europe will be able to access TalkSport’s global audio service on radio, mobile and online to listen to Premier League coverage.
For this, TalkSport intends to “establish a network of global radio partners in markets such as Asia, North America and Africa”. Talks with potential commercial and distribution partners are already underway, said the station.
Production for the international output will come from TalkSport’s studios in London, expanded specially for the new contract and boosted by extra editorial and commercial teams.
Parent company UTV Media will use the Tibus digital agency and Simply Zesty online PR firm to assist with the delivery of the project by providing technical and digital marketing expertise.
UTV Media Group chief executive John McCann said: “Since UTV acquired TalkSport in 2005, we have invested significantly in sports rights and presenters to successfully reposition TalkSport as the brand leader for sports audio content in the UK.
“Today’s agreement with the Premier League is part of UTV’s strategy to market TalkSport globally. We look forward to building on TalkSport’s reputation for quality sports content with international audiences and advertisers alike, backed up by UTV’s expertise in global digital delivery.”
BBC World Service will retain the rights to broadcast the second half of two matches each week to listeners around the globe.
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