In the talkSPORT studios this week…
Alex Tudor, former English cricketer, joined Richard Keys and Andy Gray in the studio to discuss Surrey Cricket Club, England’s form and his beloved Queens Park Rangers avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
Former Pompey star Vincent Pericard looked back on his career and discussed how he’s trying to help foreign stars settle in the Premier League.
Top golfer Colin Montgomerie popped in to the talkSPORT studios to look back on his career and told Hawksbee and Jacobs about his love of Leeds United.
Slept in and missed this morning’s excellent issue? Here it is.
KEYS AND GRAY ACHIEVE ALL TIME RECORD LISTENING FIGURES FOR talkSPORT
· Three weekday shows now reach over 1 million listeners
· Record figures for weekend programming
· 3.2 million listeners – consistent with Q4
· Listening hours now 21 million
· talkSPORT reaches 2.6 million men
talkSPORT, the world’s biggest dedicated sports radio station, has achieved its highest-ever audience reach on four shows, according to industry figures released by RAJAR today (17th May). The official industry figures cover the first quarter of the year, from 2nd January to 1st April. The Sony Award winning Keys & Gray show, Weekend Breakfast, Matchday Live and Sunday Exclusive have all recorded their highest ever listening figures.
talkSPORT has reached 3.2 million listeners for this quarter, consistent with the number for Q4 at the end of 2011. Listening hours now stand at 21 million.
Keys & Gray (10am – 1pm weekdays) achieved 1 million listeners, a 13% year on year increase and the highest number of listeners ever in that timeslot. Earlier this week the show was named Best Sports Programme at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. Weekend Sports Breakfast also achieved its biggest ever audience with a 12% quarter on quarter increase in listeners. Live football continued to be a draw for listeners with Matchday Live recording a 4% year on year increase, while Sunday Exclusive saw a 22% year on year increase.
Moz Dee, talkSPORT Programme Director said: “I’m really proud of all the presenters and all production teams who have continued to attract more listeners to their various shows. The Gold Sony Award for Keys & Gray proved how successful their show has become and these figures clearly back that up. With Euro 2012 just around the corner, we’re in great shape to bring live commentary of every game to our listeners.”
talkSPORT reaches 2.6 million men representing 80% of the audience. 55% of the total talkSPORT audience are categorised as ABC1, an increase of 1% quarter on quarter.
Scott Taunton, talkSPORT’s Chief Executive, said: “Over the past few months talkSPORT has announced a move to 24 hour sports coverage as well as our international expansion and these results show that we’re in the best position for a busy summer of sport and next season’s Barclays Premier League. Record figures across so many shows are a great achievement for everyone involved.”
talksport.co.uk has continued to grow. January 2012 was a record month for the number of unique users to the site which recorded 2.66 million unique users - its highest ever number and 57% more than in January 2011.
SUCCESS FOR talkSPORT AT SONY AWARDS
Keys & Gray Show Wins Gold Award
talkSPORT, the world’s biggest dedicated sports radio station, is today celebrating a Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Sports Programme. Richard Keys and Andy Gray were awarded the prize, beating BBC Radio 5 Live, and Absolute Radio.
In addition to the Gold award, breakfast show presenter Alan Brazil received a Silver award in the Speech Radio Personality of the Year category.
talkSPORT’s Creative team were recognised in both categories they were nominated for, winning Silver for Best Promotional Campaign for the Rugby World Cup and Bronze for Best Single Promotion.
Keys and Gray joined talkSPORT in February last year, and their 10am – 1pm show has reached a record audience for the mid-morning timeslot. Their show has attracted some of the biggest names in sport to the studio including Wayne Rooney, Jonny Wilkinson and Mark Cavendish.
There was further success for the station’s owners UTV Media (GB), as talkSPORT ‘s sister station 107.6 Juice FM in Liverpool won Station of the Year (300,000 – 1 million).
Moz Dee, talkSPORT programme director, said: “I’m really proud of Andy, Richard and their production team as well as everyone at talkSPORT who was recognised by the Radio Academy with awards and nominations. Our successes at the awards are testament to the fantastic team that we have in place and everyone’s hard work over the past 12 months.”
Scott Taunton, talkSPORT Chief Executive, said: “2012 has been a great year for us so far and the Sony Awards are a fantastic achievement on top of this. We’ve recently announced that talkSPORT is going global, and with the Euros coming up in a matter of weeks, it’s a really exciting time to be part of the station.”
England legend Teddy Sheringham swung by Drive Time for a look ahead to England’s chances at Euro 2012. He also launched our competition with Coca-Cola offering listeners the chance to win a 6-month internship and report for talkSPORT at the Euro 2012.
Former England prop forwardandWorld Cup winner Phil Vickery joined Keys and Gray on Tuesday for a look at the world of rugby.
On Thursday Damien Comolli, Liverpool’s former director of football, gave Keys and Gray his insight on Andy Carroll’s current form at Liverpool FC – and said that there is more to come from the striker.
Wednesday saw Alan Shearer, former Newcastle and England striker, reflecting on his career and the latest news in the sport.
Sport Magazine Launches Augmented Reality Issue with Blippar
Sir Steve Redgrave is the cover star of Sport magazine’s first ever interactive issue, which is available this Friday (May 11). The magazine’s Legends issue features a video interview with Sir Steve, as well as interviews with other British Olympic heroes including Dame Kelly Holmes, Sally Gunnell and Jonathan Edwards.
The magazine teamed up with Blippar, the image recognition app, to bring editorial and advertising content to life in the print issue. It is the magazine’s first augmented reality issue.
Readers who download the Blippar app on their phones will be able to scan the front cover and see Redgrave come to life and introduce the magazine’s first fully interactive issue.
All of the main interviews in the magazine will have an interactive element with the app, as well as the Radar front section and kit and entertainment reviews. Advertisers also had the opportunity to add interactive layers to their print ads and the magazine will include augmented reality ads for Next and Lionsgate films.
In the past year Sport magazine has undergone a redesign featuring a new masthead and logo and launched an iPad edition with the full print edition available for download each week plus additional video and audio features. Sport is one of the only print magazines available for free in the App Store.
Editor Simon Caney said: “It’s a really exciting issue. Not only have we interviewed six British Olympic legends, the interactive element means we are offering something totally different to any issue we’ve done before. We’re always exploring ways of delivering the magazine in a different way, but this is one of the most exciting things we’ve ever done. Having Sir Steve Redgrave, our greatest ever Olympian, introduce the magazine on film is absolutely terrific.”
Stephen Shaw, Opportunities Director for Blippar, responsible for building partnerships with publishers and media owners said: “Sport is an innovative publication that understands the importance of making its content more exciting, engaging and interactive for its readers. Working with Sport has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase how Blippar enables deeper brand engagement and richer product experiences by acting as a digital bridge, which connects readers directly from the page to publishers’ and advertisers’ digital content platforms seamlessly, within seconds.”
Website redesign boosts browsing time
April 2012 was a great month for a website as the redesign helped boost the time people spent browsing. The number of unique users that visit the site in a month has more than doubled in the last year, and now stands at 2.2 million.
As the football season closes, figures also show the Predictor game has attracted a mammoth 100,000 players this season, more than twice the number that signed up in 2010/11.
The irreverent and funny football features on the Magazine section of the site have proved more popular than ever, with a record number of page views.
Coca Cola and talkSPORT Announce Hunt for Euro 2012 Journalist
One budding young football writer is set to be offered the chance to report from UEFA EURO 2012 with a groundbreaking new partnership between Coca-Cola and talkSPORT that has been brokered by Vizeum.
The quest for the ‘Coca-Cola Fan Reporter’ will end with one lucky listener being offered the opportunity of a lifetime: a six-month paid internship at talkSPORT, beginning with a unique chance to join the station’s team out at UEFA EURO 2012.
The search begins as the result of a landmark deal for Coca-Cola, global sponsor of UEFA EURO 2012 and talkSPORT, which has today announced the brand as a category-exclusive partner of the station’s official UEFA EURO 2012 coverage.
Anthony Hogg, Head of Creative Solutions at talkSPORT, said: “The last 12 months have seen further growth for talkSPORT, both on air and digitally, and to secure a global brand such as Coca-Cola as a partner is testament to how far we have come. Our search for the Coca-Cola Fan Reporter will provide the winner with invaluable hands-on experience of sports journalism – not just for the tournament, but throughout what is a huge year of sport.”
The Coca-Cola Fan Reporter will be recruited on-air, within a branded microsite on talkSPORT.co.uk, and through talkSPORT’s Facebook and Twitter feeds. Shortlisted applicants will take part in a series of journalistic challenges, with a panel of talkSPORT presenters selecting the eventual winner.
As part of the deal, content created by the Coca-Cola Fan Reporter will be uploaded across both brands’ media channels. Coca-Cola will also sponsor a bespoke highlights package throughout the tournament, aptly named the Coca-Cola Goal Report.
Chris Deere, MyCoke GB Market Manager said: “We’re thrilled to be working with talkSPORT on this exciting collaboration, giving a football fan a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Piers Taylor, Managing Partner at Vizeum said: “This is a great opportunity to deeply integrate Coca-Cola into the talkSPORT coverage of UEFA EURO 2012, really improving the listener experience.”
Sport Magazine Appoints Tim Hudson as International Director
Sport, the UK’s biggest sport magazine, has appointed Tim Hudson as the brand’s first International Director. Tim will be tasked with looking at opportunities to expand the magazine in territories outside of the UK.
Tim has worked with several major UK publishers across advertising sales, contract publishing and international licensing and was most recently International Licensing Director at Future Publishing. While at Future, Tim oversaw over 200 licensing agreements with 70 partners in 40 countries.
Tim Hudson said: “I’ve worked with some fantastic brands during my career in publishing, but I’m really looking forward to this new opportunity with Sport. The magazine‘s great content is readily transferable to overseas markets and its innovative distribution model delivers a huge but upmarket audience for advertisers. It’s a unique and compelling licensing proposition.
As part of Sport’s plans, the magazine will be represented for the first time at the Worldwide Media Marketplace (WMM) in London in May. The event is designed for magazine media publishers who are interested in international licensing, joint ventures and content syndication and is the only one of its kind in the world.
In the past year Sport magazine has undergone a redesign featuring a new masthead and logo and launched an iPad edition with the full print edition available for download each week plus additional video and audio features. Sport is one of the only print magazines available for free in the App Store.
Sport is owned by UTV Media (GB), who also own talkSPORT – the world’s biggest sports radio station. talkSPORT recently announced that it had agreed a deal with the Premier League for an exclusive package of international audio broadcasting rights for the next four football seasons (2012/13 – 2015/16). The deal will see talkSPORT become the global audio partner of the Premier League outside the European Economic Area and broadcast commentary on all 380 Barclays Premier League games in multiple languages, including English, Spanish and Mandarin.
Adam Bullock, Managing Director, Sport, said: “Sport has made some fantastic progress over the past few months and our innovative iPad edition means that we’re available more easily to sports fans outside of London. With UEFA Euro 2012 and the eyes of the world on London for the Olympics in July, it’s an exciting time for the magazine and I’m delighted to welcome Tim, and the experience he brings with him, to our team. Following our announcement that talkSPORT is going global, it’s an exciting opportunity for Sport magazine to also look to an international audience.”
talkSPORT Regional win prestigious How Do Award
talkSPORT Regional scooped Media Sales Team of the Year at the fifth annual How Do Awards last night.
How Do received more entrants than ever for the awards this year and drew figures from all corners of the North West media and marketing industry, including SEO, radio sales, TV production, app development, event management, publishing and public relations.
The event, held at Lancashire County Cricket Club, was hosted by the broadcasters Jim Hancock and Victoria Derbyshire.
Julian Carter, Commercial Director for UTV Media (GB)/talkSPORT Regional said: “We’re extremely proud that the achievements of the last year have been recognised by fellow professionals in the industry – everyone has worked so hard and the awards are thoroughly deserved.”
UTV Media Liverpool station 107.6 Juice FM was also crowned Station of the Year at the ceremony.
