What is talkSPORT?
talkSPORT is a national sport radio station in the United Kingdom, broadcast on analogue and digital radio and online, with a companion service, talkSPORT 2. The broadcasting directory media.info records that the station launched on 14 February 1995 under the former name Talk Radio, and that it is held by "News Broadcasting, which in turn is owned by News Corp subsidiary News UK" [1]. That ownership rests on a single secondary source; no company filing confirming it was retrieved for this page.
Its position in UK sport is set by contract rather than by description. The Premier League announced on 5 November 2024 that it had sold UK live audio rights for the four seasons from 2025-26 to 2028-29 and that talkSPORT had taken two of the six packages [2].
Radio audiences in the United Kingdom are measured by RAJAR, whose quarterly figures are the reference used throughout the audience section below.
What does talkSPORT cover?
The dated core of the schedule is live Premier League commentary. Of the six UK live audio packages sold on 5 November 2024, talkSPORT took package 2 — 43 matches in the Saturday 12.30 slot — and package 6 — 68 matches in Friday and Monday evening slots at 19:30 to 20:00 and in midweek — a total of about 111 matches a season across the 2025-26 to 2028-29 seasons [2]. The four remaining packages, about 209 matches a season, went to the BBC [2]. The Premier League states that the audio arrangement covers all matches outside the Saturday 15:00 slot together with selected 15:00 matches [2].
Speech programming around the sport is the station’s other output, and one strand of it is measured. Press Gazette reports that talkSPORT’s breakfast programme overtook the BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast show, put at 1.3 million listeners, during the second quarter of 2026 [3].
No published schedule of the station’s wider sport commitments beyond the Premier League audio packages was retrieved, and none is asserted here.
How large is talkSPORT's audience?
RAJAR is the measurement body for UK radio. For the survey period ending 28 June 2026, the main talkSPORT service was reported at 3.3 million weekly listeners among adults aged 15 and over, with BBC Radio 5 Live at 5.5 million for the same period [4]. Press Gazette, reporting the same quarter, gave 3.67 million and described it as up 1 per cent quarter on quarter [3].
The two published readings are not in conflict; they count different things. RadioToday’s account of the previous quarter separates them explicitly: for the first quarter of 2026 it puts the talkSPORT network at 3.6 million, states that "The main talkSPORT service increased 1.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter to 3.3 million listeners", and gives talkSPORT 2 at 549,000 with listening hours at a record 1.6 million, against BBC Radio 5 Live on 5.4 million [5]. The higher figure is the network, the lower the station.
No digital figure for talksport.com could be retrieved. Press Gazette states that talkSPORT is among the outlets absent from its Ipsos iris ranking of UK sports news sites because it lacks separate tracking there [6].
Since when has talkSPORT existed?
media.info gives the launch as 14 February 1995 and records "Talk Radio" as the station’s former name [1]. The launch and the rename are separate events, and only the launch has a date here: the date on which Talk Radio became talkSPORT could not be established from a source retrieved for this page, and no year is asserted for it.
The ownership is recorded in the present tense by the same directory, which places the licence with News Broadcasting and News Broadcasting under News UK, a News Corp subsidiary [1]. When the station passed to that owner is not stated there, and is not stated here.
The current rights position is precisely dated and is the most reliable anchor for a reader checking whether a claim about the station is still live: the Premier League audio packages were awarded on 5 November 2024 and run from 2025-26 to 2028-29 [2].
Why does talkSPORT matter in the United Kingdom's sport?
It is one of only two holders of UK live Premier League radio rights, alongside the BBC, under the 5 November 2024 award covering four seasons [2]. Live audio commentary is a separate rights layer from live television and from highlights, and the league sells it separately; talkSPORT is the commercial half of that layer.
Its measured reach is the second figure that carries weight. RAJAR put the main service at 3.3 million weekly listeners for the quarter ending 28 June 2026 [4] and the network at 3.67 million [3], against BBC Radio 5 Live on 5.5 million [4]. RAJAR applies one measurement currency to every UK radio station, so those figures are directly comparable with each other.
The station is reported to sit under News UK, which also publishes The Times and The Sunday Times [1]. See also broadcast rights.
References
- media.info — talkSPORT station record: launch date, former name and licence holder. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Premier League — Premier League sells UK live audio rights to the BBC and talkSPORT, 5 November 2024. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Press Gazette — RAJAR second quarter 2026 radio audience figures. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- adambowie.com — RAJAR second quarter 2026, survey period ending 28 June 2026, station weekly reach. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- RadioToday — RAJAR first quarter 2026: observations, facts and figures. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Press Gazette — Most popular websites for sports news in the UK, Ipsos iris. Accessed 2026-09-19.