Absolute Radio launches new football show instead of bidding for Premier League rights
Absolute Radio opted out of bidding for Premier League rights this season, instead launching a new ‘Rock and Roll’ football show for the 2016/17 season to focus its efforts on music and goals rather than live football commentary.
The new show will be hosted by comedian Rob Beckett, Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright, and Matt Dyson, the newsreader on the Christian O’Connell Breakfast show.
The football programming will kick-off every Saturday morning at 11am during the Premier League season with presenter OJ Borg joining the station to provide early kick-off updates and requests for fans travelling on the road to watch their teams.
Beckett and Wright will host the show from 3-6pm. The hosts will deliver all of the goals, news and reaction to the Saturday games alongside fan phone in features.
The show will also have a Sunday edition which will be fronted by evening presenter and ‘Football Ramble Podcast’ founding member Pete Donaldson from 2-6pm.
It marks the end to Absolute Radio’s six years of live football commentary on the season.
Paul Sylvester, content director at Absolute Radio, said: “We’ve had a great six years of live Barclays Premier league commentary and we’re now taking the show in a new direction. Absolute Radio’s audience want music, goals and comedy on Saturdays, so there’s no better pairing than Rob Beckett and Ian Wright. Alongside the rest of the team, we’re in a great position to build on our football entertainment proposition”