Way back in August last year, we reported that UK-based radio station TalkSport was to broadcast every English Premier League match globally from this season, via a Web-based portal that was also optimized for mobile devices. The one big caveat, however, was that due to rights-related reasons, TalkSport Live could only be offered outside of Europe, which was a major bummer for many.
While the non-European restriction still applies, TalkSport Live has now received the native mobile app treatment for iOS and Android.
TalkSport Live goes mobile
The apps were actually quietly launched more than a month ago, but they’ll likely go down a storm in many parts of the world where the English Premier League is held in high esteem. Indeed, while the audio commentary was already available in Mandarin and Spanish, the new mobile apps’ interfaces are also available entirely localized for Chinese and Spanish.
It’s not just about commentary, however, as it also serves up full data around live scores, team lists, stats and text commentary during games, as well as past results, upcoming fixture lists and league tables (similar to the recently-launched BBC Sport app).
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But of course, the star attraction is the live commentary, which is broadcast alongside minute-by-minute text updates too. It probably goes without saying that you’ll need to find another avenue to satiate your football cravings if you prefer to watch matches.
It’s also worth mentioning that TalkSport has already taken its international broadcasts to the next level through Twitter, with live commentary of the Barclays Premier League made available through an embedded radio player on its Twitter accounts – in English, Spanish and Chinese.
“We know football fans don’t want to miss a second of the action and our new apps ensure that they can get all their live football and match highlights on their mobile device,” says Jimmy Buckland, Director of Strategy, TalkSport. “Since launching TalkSport Live last year we’ve expanded the number of ways that listeners can hear live football and these mobile apps are the exciting next step.”
TalkSport, owned by UTV Radio, is one of the UK’s three terrestrial, analogue independent national radio broadcasters, serving up round-the-clock sports chatter from a studio in London. In the UK, TalkSport can broadcast two English Premier League matches every weekend through a separate domestic rights deal it has had in place for a number of years, and also has rights to the FA Cup, England football internationals, the Capital One Cup, Aviva Premiership Rugby and the 2013 British and Irish Lions rugby tour to Australia.
With TalkSport Live, however, football fans across Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas can catch every minute of every EPL match, which isn’t bad at all. And in addition to the English Premier League, listeners can also get access to Capital One Cup (League Cup) and FA Cup matches too, not to mention an on-demand catch-up service.
The new apps were developed by All In Media, which has already built more than 200 mobile apps for broadcasters across the world.
➤ TalkSport Live – iOS | Android
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Feature Image Credit – Thinkstock
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