New York, NY/ San Francisco, CA (September 21, 2015) – Time Inc.’s (NYSE:TIME) Sports Illustrated Group today announced a deal with San Francisco-based Chat Sports, Inc. that deepens the Group’s editorial coverage, sales inventory and marketing support. This announcement follows a sweeping series of recent initiatives from the SI Group, including the acquisition of the FanSided Network of 300 sites, the launch of the college football-focused Campus Rush digital vertical and Time Inc.’s recent acquisitions of three companies that form the nucleus of SI Play – a new business division devoted to youth sports. The new partnership with Chat Sports pushes the SI Group further into the mobile space. It expands the SI brand’s visibility with millennials, and it adds momentum to one of the sports industry’s most aggressive enterprises.
The deal with Chat Sports – one of the fastest-growing mobile-first media companies – will allow for the cross-pollination of content across both companies’ digital networks. Chat Sports can now be folded into SI advertising sales offerings, and Chat Sports’ monthly comScore traffic will also be accrued within the SI Digital network. SI Digital GM Patty Hirsch stated that, “Working with Chat Sports naturally syncs with our strategy to diversify the SI Digital network, deepen our coverage across all sports and position the fan in front of today’s generation of mobile-first sports fans. Chat Sports is a hot young company, and we’re thrilled to be working with it.”
Based in San Francisco, Chat Sports provides comprehensive sports news and scores available online and via iPhone app, with an Android application launching this fall. Its unique social newsfeed curates content from every top sports source while providing live scores, stats and play-by-play. Chat Sports produces thousands of original articles across all major American sports each month. Original content from the company’s staff of full-time writers and hundreds of nationwide contributors is available for publishing across the SI Digital network, including SI.com, Fansided.com and Golf.com.
Chat Sports is thrilled to forge a strong bond with the SI family of properties. “Sports Illustrated is a tremendous partner,” commented Chat Sports CEO James Yoder. “We are excited to produce and distribute high-quality articles that meet the impeccable standards that SI is known for. The similarity in our audiences makes this a natural fit.”
To learn more about Chat Sports, visit http://www.chatsports.com or follow Chat Sports on Facebook and Twitter.
To learn more about Sports Illustrated, visit http://www.si.com/ or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Sports Illustrated Group
The Sports Illustrated Group is a portfolio of best-in-class products and platforms devoted to the coverage of sports. The Group reaches a combined audience of more than 60 million across its portfolio, which includes the most-read sports magazine, a top 10 sports digital network and such franchises as TheMMQB.com, the FanSided Network, Sports Illustrated Films, the SI Golf Group and Sports Illustrated Kids.
About Chat Sports
Founded in 2012 and launched on iPhone in March 2014, Chat Sports is the leading sports media brand for mobile. Delivering 250,000 unique pieces of sports content each month, Chat Sports is the only app offering personalized news and scores shared seamlessly with friends. Chat Sports curates articles from national and local publishers and its own network of 300+ journalists nationwide while providing the fastest live scores, stats and play-by-play. Integrated with Facebook and featuring real-time social reading, the Chat Sports smart newsfeed is the only social sports experience.
About Time Inc.
Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME) is one of the world's leading media companies, with a monthly global print audience of over 120 million and worldwide digital properties that attract more than 140 million visitors each month, including over 60 websites. Our influential brands include People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Time, Real Simple, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly, Travel + Leisure, Cooking Light, Fortune and Food & Wine, as well as more than 50 diverse titles in the United Kingdom, such as Decanter, Horse & Hound and Wallpaper*. Time Inc. is home to celebrated franchises and events, including the Fortune 500, Time 100, People’s Sexiest Man Alive, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, the Essence Festival and the biennial Fortune Global Forum. Hundreds of thousands of people attend our live media events every year. We also provide content marketing, targeted local print and digital advertising programs, branded book publishing and marketing and support services, including subscription sales services for magazines and other products, retail distribution and marketing services and customer service and fulfillment services, for ourselves and third-party clients, including other magazine publishers.
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CONTACT:
Sports Illustrated
Danny Leonard
Danny_Leonard@timeinc.com
212.522.0361
Chat Sports
Suzi Alvarez
Suzi@chatsports.com
267.624.3930