SAN FRANCISCO – With the 2016-17 collegiate athletic season days away from kicking off, TuneIn and Learfield announced today a significantly expanded partnership, providing fans live streaming of the hometown radio play-by-play broadcasts of their favorite teams in multiple sports.
With its deep presence in the collegiate sports landscape as multimedia rights holder to 120 institutions, conferences and arenas, Learfield provides the world’s largest audio network access to some of the biggest brands in college sports. In this new term, effective through the 2020-21 athletic season, TuneIn will be hosting dedicated channels for a record 74 collegiate properties where Learfield holds rights – 48 of which have been added to the mix this season.
“College sports fans are among the most passionate listeners on our platform and we’re thrilled to further serve them through our extension with Learfield,” said TuneIn Chief Content Officer Kevin Straley. “In each of our three strategic partnerships with Learfield, we have been fortunate enough to add more schools and content to make TuneIn the ultimate streaming destination for in-market and displaced fans.”
Fans of these programs worldwide will have 24/7 free access to live streaming and on-demand audio broadcasts of live game action and related programming. The schools’ radio broadcasts will be available on the TuneIn mobile app and via the web at TuneIn.com. Live game broadcasts vary by school, but the sports include football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and hockey, as well as coaches’ shows. In the event of a university broadcast conflict, TuneIn will air live the marquee sport, as determined by the respective school. TuneIn will air any postseason broadcast in which Learfield and the school retain the streaming rights.
“This is a tremendous offering for fans, and we’re excited to roll it out to schools,” said Learfield Chief Operating Officer Marc Jenkins. “TuneIn has been a solid, respected partner of ours in this space for years, and we’re proud to be able to extend it to this level. We’re excited to get it going and have everything in place before we kick off the season.”
TuneIn has the most comprehensive free college football coverage in the industry with hundreds of live games from every major conference, including the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC, AAC, MAC and WAC. TuneIn will continue to carry every play-by-play broadcast and additional shoulder college football content from nearly all Top 25 ranked programs. At the start of the season, fans can simply search for their school on the TuneIn app or visit TuneIn.com/collegefootball.
TuneIn’s free and premium services are available for download on iOS and Android, at TuneIn.com and on more than 200 connected devices. Listeners can subscribe to TuneIn Premium or sign up for a free trial via TuneIn.com, iOS and Android apps.
About TuneIn
TuneIn is the most popular way to listen to streaming audio from around the world. With more than 60 million monthly active users, TuneIn lets people listen to the world’s sports, news, talk, and music from wherever they are. TuneIn has over 100,000 radio stations and more than 5.7 million on-demand programs stemming from every continent, and is available for free across many connected devices. TuneIn Premium lets subscribers listen to the NFL, MLB, NBA, over 40k audiobooks, and commercial-free music stations. TuneIn has venture funding from Comcast Ventures, IVP, Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Icon Ventures, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
About Learfield
An industry leader for more than four decades, Learfield has a deep presence in the college athletics landscape nationwide. It manages the multimedia and sponsorship rights for 120 collegiate institutions, conferences and arenas, and supports athletic departments at all competitive levels as title sponsor of the prestigious Learfield Directors’ Cup. Learfield also provides its collegiate partners access to professional concessions and ticket sales; licensing and trademark consulting; digital and social platform expertise; and venue and technology systems through its affiliated companies.