ESPN Radio and the University of Southern California (USC) today announced a multi-year agreement in which the network will have exclusive national broadcast rights for all home Trojans football games.
This marks ESPN Radio’s first nationally exclusive broadcasting agreement with a college football program and only the second such agreement in the industry (Notre Dame and IMG Sports).
“We have had a long relationship with USC which has proven to be an excellent one in many ways,” says Tim McCarthy, Sr. Vice President, ESPN Radio Play by Play & Talent Planning. “We will work closely with USC to develop ancillary marketing opportunities to touch USC fans everywhere.”
The ESPN Radio-USC agreement also provides Spanish-language rights for ESPN Deportes Radio, the country’s first and only 24/7 national Spanish-language sports radio network, with every USC home and away game being cleared in the LA market.
“USC and the Trojan football program are extremely excited to have all of our home games carried nationally by ESPN Radio,” said Pat Haden, USC’s Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics’ Chair. ”To partner with ESPN Radio and have the USC brand distributed at this level is a fantastic opportunity to reach Trojan fans throughout the nation. It is also immensely important that we will be able to reach our Hispanic fan base throughout Southern California with ESPN Deportes.”
“This agreement with ESPN Radio will provide tremendous, unprecedented exposure for USC football and it will help elevate the USC brand,” said Dan Shell, Vice President and General Manager, USC Sports Properties. “It will also benefit our sponsors by providing them with a nationally distributed platform to connect with their target audience.”
USC Sports Properties will retain the right to sell local radio inventory in packages as part of its overall sales efforts for USC athletics.
ESPN Radio will present USC games on up to 300 affiliates nationwide. 710 ESPN Los Angeles (KSPN) has been the flagship station of the USC Football Radio Network (Fresno to San Diego) since 2006.