Football Focus to be axed but Alex Scott to remain key BBC Sport presenter Sport Business The BBC is scrapping Football Focus at the end of this season after more than half a century but has promised that host Alex Scott will not disappear from its programming. The Saturday lunchtime magazine show launched in 1974 and became a staple of the BBC’s sport coverage but is being axed in response to [...]
Neville rivals Lineker media empire after The Overlap buys out YouTuber Goldbridge Sport Business Gary Neville is continuing to follow fellow former footballer Gary Lineker’s media empire-building after his network, The Overlap, acquired Manchester United YouTuber Mark Goldbridge’s fan channels. The deal, reported to be worth seven figures, sees ex-United and England defender turned pundit Neville join forces with Goldbridge, a 47-year-old former police officer who has become the [...]
Back of the Netflix: Sports content is fuelling wave of ad-funded streaming Sport Business Owning live rights is no longer the only way for streaming platforms like Netflix to capture sports audiences, writes Chris Keenan. Could there be a way to engage sports audiences without the billions spent on traditional broadcast rights? It’s this thinking that appears to be shaping Netflix’s latest moves. Over the past year, the streaming [...]
Podcast group Goalhanger nets US investor backing January 28, 2026 US-based investment firm The Chernin Group (TCG) has taken a minority stake in Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Podcasts, becoming the first outside investor in the podcasting giant. The investment will support Goalhanger’s “next phase of growth”, which includes accelerating its expansion into the US and developing new IP from its hit shows. The transaction was completed [...]
Goalhanger profit soars as Gary Lineker-owned podcast firm attracts global audience December 9, 2025 Profit at Gary Lineker-owned production group Goalhanger has soared as the media group continued to build up a global audience for its portfolio of podcasts. The group’s retained earnings, a measure of the total profit accumulated since the firm was founded, more than tripled to £4.6m in the seven months to the end of December [...]
Lineker 1, BBC 0: Goalhanger set for bumper World Cup deal with Netflix December 2, 2025 Netflix has reportedly signed Gary Lineker’s The Rest Is Football podcast in a deal which will see the former BBC presenter go up against his old employer at next year’s World Cup. Lineker is expected set to earn millions of pounds from selling the rights to the show, in which he discusses topical football matters [...]
Should Robert Peston really be making adverts for Google? October 30, 2025 “I was struck by some analysis that Google has done that shows that the adoption of artificial intelligence can increase productivity by around 20 per cent,” ITV political editor Robert Peston says. If you weren’t paying close enough attention, you’d be forgiven for missing that Peston’s remarks form part of a new advertising campaign he [...]
BBC on hunt for Fifa World Cup host after Lineker exit May 19, 2025 The BBC are on the hunt for a new face for their 2026 Fifa World Cup coverage after Match Of The Day star Gary Lineker departed the broadcaster a year early. Lineker, the 64-year-old who was the BBC’s highest paid presenter, has apologised “unreservedly” for an Instagram video he shared about Zionism which included an [...]
What Gary Lineker’s early BBC departure means for his podcast empire May 19, 2025 Gary Lineker’s early departure from the BBC will also have an impact on his growing podcast empire, it is understood. It was confirmed this morning that the TV presenter is to leave the corporation after this weekend’s Match Of The Day. Gary Lineker is to depart the broadcaster earlier than planned and will not front [...]
Gary Lineker: BBC pushed me out of £1.3m Match of the Day job April 22, 2025 Gary Lineker has revealed that the BBC pushed him out of his long-running £1.3m job as presenter of Match of the Day. Lineker’s departure at the end of this season after 26 years in the role was announced in November, with the BBC describing the move as him “stepping down” and saying he’d be “hugely [...]