talkSPORT

Background

talkSPORT is the UK’s leading sports radio brand and the world’s biggest sports radio station. The broadcaster holds the rights for exclusive football commentaries from the Barclays Premier League, to which it is the global audio partner, as well as other competitions. In addition to its radio services on MW and DAB, talkSPORT makes its commentaries and other broadcasts available to listeners around the world on mobile, tablet and desktop via its talkSPORT Live function.

It also runs the award-winning talkSPORT.com, which attracts huge numbers of visitors to read its daily selection of sports news, opinion and analysis.

Tibus was tasked with providing hosting infrastructure for talkSPORT Live and talkSPORT.com.

What We Did

The key aspect for both the streaming and web hosting services we built for talkSPORT was to ensure that the valuable content was delivered to listeners and readers around the world quickly, efficiently and with the highest levels of user experience.

To set about doing that we:

• Built a load-balanced solution for talkSPORT.com, so that the demand for resources is spread across several servers when the website gets a large influx of traffic.
• Created a selector that is clearly visible to fans and tailors the game choice to their location and language.
• Designed a highly innovative streaming platform to cope with the high levels of global demand for talkSPORT’s broadcasts.
• Integrated the site with OPTA, which provides the audience with live match stats in real time.
• Built a partner platform, allowing talkSPORT to monetise their rights packages to the maximum extent.
• Enabled registration and login with social media using the Gigya platform for a more streamlined user experience.
• Integrated the online services with talkSPORT's existing core broadcasting platforms.

Results

The hosting and streaming platforms we’ve put in place ensure the very best user experience for all visitors to talkSPORT.com and listeners to talkSPORT Live. Even at peak times, such as when a big football story breaks, on transfer deadline day or during important matches, the hosting resources are managed and optimised to cope with the demand.

The platform also offers secure rights management to help protect talkSPORT’s assets. This results in a website and broadcasts that deliver the desired results for users, advertising agencies and advertisers themselves.

Overall, Tibus has taken the responsibility for technology management away from talkSPORT, allowing greater focus on their core business of broadcasting and monetising those broadcasts. We’ve helped talkSPORT to significantly grow its audiences both home and abroad.