ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM to Launch, Comprehensive 24/7 College Sports Audio Channel

NEW YORK, Aug. 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SiriusXM and ESPN are teaming up to deliver an exclusive 24/7 college sports channel, programmed by SiriusXM, that will give fans the most comprehensive and in-depth college sports coverage available. ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM (channel 84) will debut Thursday, August 31, and will be available exclusively to SiriusXM subscribers via satellite radios, the SiriusXM app and on connected devices including smart TVs, Amazon Alexa devices and Sony PlayStation.

ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM will combine the talented college sports hosts and analysts from both companies. It will continue to feature SiriusXM's long-running daily college sports programs The First Team (weekdays, 7-10 am ET), Full Ride (weekdays, 10am-1pm ET), Playbook (weekdays, 1-4pm ET) and Off Campus (weekdays, 4-7pm ET), as well as the weekend shows College Sports Sunday and College Football Sunday.

SiriusXM hosts and analysts on the channel include Greg McElroy, Rick Neuheisel, Steve Spurrier, Phil Savage, Jonathan Vilma, Ryan Leaf, James Laurinaitis, A.J. Hawk, Danny Kanell, Brad Hopkins, Charles Arbuckle, Tom Brennan, Bobby Cremins, Fran Fraschilla, Seth Greenberg, Steve Lappas, Taylor Zarzour, Mark Packer, Chris Childers, Rachel Baribeau, Andy Staples, David Moulton and Braden Gall.

Throughout each week, ESPN's college sports talent will join the channel to provide analysis and discuss the topics of the day. ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit and college basketball analyst Jay Bilas will appear weekly on ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM throughout their respective seasons. Other high profile ESPN commentators and analysts will also be heard regularly on the channel.

ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM will simulcast ESPN shows including the popular College Gameday live each Saturday morning during the college football season, the College Football Top 25 Show, College Football Live Daily, College Basketball Gameday and others. The channel will also broadcast some of the year's biggest college sporting events live, including the College Football Playoff Semifinal and National Championship games, which will also air on ESPN Radio, channel 80.

The channel will now be the exclusive home for the first run of several ESPN college sports podcasts including those hosted by Kirk Herbstreit and Ian Fitzsimmons, Jay Bilas, Dan Dakich and Seth Greenberg. 

ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM will also broadcast live on location from select College Gameday destinations, and special events including the College Football Playoff Semifinals and National Championship.

"SiriusXM has been a strong partner with us for 16 years now," said Traug Keller, senior vice president, Audio and Talent, ESPN. "With this new extension, we look forward to continuing to bring our unique and diverse content to SiriusXM. The addition of ESPNU Radio to SiriusXM's lineup will bring ESPNU's signature perspective and the sounds of the game to a broader swath of fans."

"With fans in all corners of the country eagerly anticipating the start of college football season, we are very excited to collaborate with ESPN to deliver those fans the country's most comprehensive college sports audio channel," said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM's President and Chief Content Officer. "ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM showcases an extraordinary team of hosts and analysts from both SiriusXM and ESPN and fans can get it virtually anywhere – in the car, at home, or on the go. This is an exciting expansion of our longstanding broadcast agreement, which continues to give our subscribers access to ESPN's top notch array of programming and platforms on ESPN Radio, ESPN Xtra and now ESPNU Radio."

ESPN and SiriusXM have signed a five-year extension of their comprehensive content distribution agreement. SiriusXM subscribers will continue to hear the ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes Radio channels, as well as the exclusive ESPN Xtra channel, which simulcasts several shows including First Take, the forthcoming show hosted by Mike Greenberg, The Paul Finebaum Show, the soon-to-debut program hosted by Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre, audio broadcasts of ESPN Films' acclaimed 30 for 30 documentaries, 30 for 30 podcasts, SC Featured and more. The agreement also extends SiriusXM's rights to broadcast a host of live sports events including the College Football Playoff and other college football bowl games, the NBA regular season and NBA Finals and more.

About ESPN Radio

ESPN Radio, the country's largest sports radio network, ESPN Deportes Radio, and ESPN Podcasts comprise ESPN Audio.ESPN Audio launched its first podcast in 2005 and tallied nearly 293 million downloads in 2016.  ESPN Audio podcasts cover the spectrum of sports content and most popular titles include Fantasy Focus Football, The Lowe Post and FiveThirtyEight Politics, as well as podcast versions of Mike & Mike, The Dan LeBatard Show, First Take, Pardon the Interruption, Baseball Tonight, and Around The Horn. 

ESPN Radio, which launched January 1, 1992, provides more than 9,000 hours of talk and event content annually, reaching 20 million listeners a week on 500 nationwide stations, including more than 375 full-time affiliates and clearance in the top 25 markets.  ESPN owns and/or operates stations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.  ESPN Radio programming is also available on SiriusXM and via digital distributors Apple Music, Slacker Radio and TuneIn.

About ESPNU

ESPNU launched March 4, 2005. The 24-hour college sports television network televises more than 650 live events annually. Action includes a variety of top football and men's and women's basketball games, as well as Olympic sports from 26 Division I conferences. ESPNU is the destination for premier collegiate and high school programming, including elite football, basketball, baseball, softball and lacrosse events. ESPNU, as part of ESPN's wide-ranging agreement with the NCAA, has extensive coverage of NCAA Championship events. It is also the television home for ESPN Radio's The Dan LeBatard Show and the new Golic and Wingo show, which debuts in January.

About SiriusXM

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. SIRI is the world's largest radio company measured by revenue and has more than 32 million subscribers. SiriusXM creates and offers commercial-free music; premier sports talk and live events; comedy; news; exclusive talk and entertainment, and a wide-range of Latin music, sports and talk programming. SiriusXM is available in vehicles from every major car company and on smartphones and other connected devices as well as online at siriusxm.com. SiriusXM radios and accessories are available from retailers nationwide and online at SiriusXM. SiriusXM also provides premium traffic, weather, data and information services for subscribers through SiriusXM Traffic™, SiriusXM Travel Link, NavTraffic®, NavWeather™. SiriusXM delivers weather, data and information services to aircraft and boats through SiriusXM Aviation™ and SiriusXM Marine™. In addition, SiriusXM Music for Business provides commercial-free music to a variety of businesses. SiriusXM holds a minority interest in SiriusXM Canada which has approximately 2.8 million subscribers. SiriusXM is also a leading provider of connected vehicles services, giving customers access to a suite of safety, security, and convenience services including automatic crash notification, stolen vehicle recovery assistance, enhanced roadside assistance and turn-by-turn navigation.

To download SiriusXM logos and artwork, visit http://www.siriusxm.com/LogosAndPhotos.

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Source: SiriusXM

Media contacts:

Tara Chozet
ESPN Radio
tara.c.chozet@espn.com 
(860) 766-2206

Andrew Fitzpatrick
SiriusXM
andrew.fitzpatrick@siriusxm.com 
(212) 901-6693

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SOURCE Sirius XM Holdings Inc.