Newstalk scores Eir sponsorship for “Off the Ball”

Newstalk's popular Off the Ball radio sports show has netted a 12-month sponsorship from Eir in a deal believed to have a media value of €500,000.

Off the Ball is one of the most successful shows on the Denis O'Brien-owned radio station with 48,000 listeners each weekday, rising to 130,000 on the weekend.

The magazine show runs seven days a week and is presented mostly by Ger Gilroy, Joe Molloy and Kevin Kilbane.

The sponsorship will kick off on Monday and will include 84 prerecorded stings on weekdays, 30 at weekends and 21 branded prerecorded promos per week.

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Eir will also run up to four on-air promotions across the 12 months of the deal, which also includes promotion on Off the Ball's podcasts.

Eir Sport, formerly known as Setanta Sports, will continue to broadcast the first half-hour of the radio show on weekday evenings as part of its television broadcasts.

Eir's group sponsorship manager John Anslow said the deal would be "mutually beneficial as we connect with sports fans across the country".

Newstalk's sports editor Adrian Barry described the sponsorship as a "very natural fit" for the show. "We look forward to working together to bring quality content to a larger audience across their network, including our nightly appearances on the Eir Sport channel," he said.

The Off the Ball deal follows Eir Business's decision to extend its sponsorship of Newstalk's breakfast show out to January 2018.