UTV Media-owned radio station will broadcast live commentary of every game from the Brazil 2014 tournament
TalkSport has secured live commentary rights to the 2014 football World Cup, as it looks to bounce back after its 2013 revenues were hit by the absence of a major international football tournament.
The UTV Media-owned commercial radio station is to broadcast live commentary of every match from the opening game of the 2014 World Cup on 12 June through to the final at the Maracana Stadium on 13 July.
Live commentary rights will be shared with BBC Radio 5 Live, as they have been for the past two World Cup tournaments.
Commentary will come from TalkSport's existing pool of football presenters and pundits, including Stan Collymore, Sam Matterface, Richard Keys and Andy Gray, with possible new signings.
Along with the games, TalkSport will broadcast the draw to the World Cup on 6 December from Brazil and special shows live from South America.
UTV Media will hope that securing the rights will help reinvigorate revenues across its flagship TalkSport station, which were down 15% year on year in the nine months to 30 September, after it suffered from difficult comparisons with the year previously when it covered the Euro 2012 football championships.
Overall, revenues at UTV Media's Radio GB division, which also includes regional stations such as Signal, WireFM and its free magazine Sport, were down 10% on the year to £37.1m. UTV Media did not break out specific performance figures for Sport magazine.
In the three months to 30 September, revenues at GB Radio improved and were down just 3% to £13.1m.
But UTV Media is optimistic about the performance of TalkSport and its local radio stations in the final quarter of 2013, predicting that revenues across Radio GB will be up 4% on the year.
Across the UTV Media business as a whole, which includes the ITV Northern Ireland franchise and radio stations in Ireland, revenues came in at £83.3m, down 7% year-on-year, in the nine months to September this year.
UTV announced last week that it planned to launch a new TV channel in Ireland in early 2015, on the back of snatching the Irish rights to all ITV Studios shows from rival broadcaster TV3.
Calum Macaulay, TalkSport managing director, said: "This Fifa World Cup in Brazil will be the biggest ever. For both our existing and potential new commercial partners, this partnership is great news and reflects TalkSport's continued investment in our product and our desire to grow bigger upmarket sports audiences across all our platforms- on air, online, on mobile and on social media."
Liam Fisher, TalkSport programme director, said: "As the UK's only 24-hour sports station we're perfectly placed to bring unrivalled coverage of what's sure to be an exciting and vibrant Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Last season, we broadcast over 130 live football commentaries– and the Fifa World Cup is the pinnacle of the football calendar. With England now safely through to the finals, the whole station can't wait for what's set to be one of our biggest ever summers."
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TalkSport has secured live commentary rights to the 2014 football World Cup, as it looks to bounce back after its 2013 revenues were hit by the absence of a major international football tournament.
The UTV Media-owned commercial radio station is to broadcast live commentary of every match from the opening game of the 2014 World Cup on 12 June through to the final at the Maracana Stadium on 13 July.
Live commentary rights will be shared with BBC Radio 5 Live, as they have been for the past two World Cup tournaments.
Commentary will come from TalkSport's existing pool of football presenters and pundits, including Stan Collymore, Sam Matterface, Richard Keys and Andy Gray, with possible new signings.
Along with the games, TalkSport will broadcast the draw to the World Cup on 6 December from Brazil and special shows live from South America.
UTV Media will hope that securing the rights will help reinvigorate revenues across its flagship TalkSport station, which were down 15% year on year in the nine months to 30 September, after it suffered from difficult comparisons with the year previously when it covered the Euro 2012 football championships.
Overall, revenues at UTV Media's Radio GB division, which also includes regional stations such as Signal, WireFM and its free magazine Sport, were down 10% on the year to £37.1m. UTV Media did not break out specific performance figures for Sport magazine.
In the three months to 30 September, revenues at GB Radio improved and were down just 3% to £13.1m.
But UTV Media is optimistic about the performance of TalkSport and its local radio stations in the final quarter of 2013, predicting that revenues across Radio GB will be up 4% on the year.
Across the UTV Media business as a whole, which includes the ITV Northern Ireland franchise and radio stations in Ireland, revenues came in at £83.3m, down 7% year-on-year, in the nine months to September this year.
UTV announced last week that it planned to launch a new TV channel in Ireland in early 2015, on the back of snatching the Irish rights to all ITV Studios shows from rival broadcaster TV3.
Calum Macaulay, TalkSport managing director, said: "This Fifa World Cup in Brazil will be the biggest ever. For both our existing and potential new commercial partners, this partnership is great news and reflects TalkSport's continued investment in our product and our desire to grow bigger upmarket sports audiences across all our platforms- on air, online, on mobile and on social media."
Liam Fisher, TalkSport programme director, said: "As the UK's only 24-hour sports station we're perfectly placed to bring unrivalled coverage of what's sure to be an exciting and vibrant Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Last season, we broadcast over 130 live football commentaries– and the Fifa World Cup is the pinnacle of the football calendar. With England now safely through to the finals, the whole station can't wait for what's set to be one of our biggest ever summers."
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.