LBC owner Global has taken a majority stake in Gary Neville’s sports podcast company The Overlap.
The Overlap will join Global Studios, which launched in October, to “supercharge” its podcast growth and lead a “video-first shift”.
Global Studios is already home to shows including: The News Agents, The Sports Agents and podcasts from creator network The Fellas Studios which was also acquired in October.
The Overlap currently has 1.6 million subscribers on Youtube compared to 5,000 for Global’s The Sports Agents, hosted by Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.
Rival Goalhanger’s The Rest Is Football, has 457,000 Youtube subscribers.
The Overlap’s brands include Stick To Football (which features football stars Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher, Jill Scott, and Ian Wright alongside Neville, Fan Debate with Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes) and Stick To Cricket (featuring Sir Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan, David Lloyd, and Phil Tufnell).
Global said that The Overlap deal will mark the start of a partnership in which it will build out The Overlap Network of video-led brands and channels across sports verticals, starting with football.
This venture will be co-chaired by Neville and Global group chief executive Simon Pitts, with The Overlap’s CEO as lead executive director.
Global said it will use its platforms, relationships and marketing power to support the growth of The Overlap across its distribution, data insights and ad sales.
Pitts said: “We want Global Studios to be the home of the best audio and video brands on the planet and The Overlap’s ambition, creativity and unrivalled connection with fans is a perfect fit.
“The acquisition of a majority stake in The Overlap accelerates our growth strategy across video, podcasts and branded entertainment, and strengthens Global’s position at the heart of the sports conversation following the recent launch of Sport by Global.”
Neville said: “We see huge growth potential for The Overlap and have spent the last few months in a strategic investment process and are delighted to have found the perfect partner in Global to power us forward and create ‘The Overlap Network’ with the aim of becoming a world-leading football and sports media platform.”
Miroma Group, previous investors in The Overlap, have left as part of the Global acquisition process.
The acquisition comes soon after Global Media & Entertainment published its financial results for the year to 31 March 2025 in which it showed revenue up 5% year on year to £898m.
The broadcaster, which also owns an outdoor advertising business, reported a pre-tax loss of £140m, up from £120.4m a year earlier. Despite this operating profit from continuing operations was £95.8m, up 8%.
Just over half (52%) of revenue came from out-of-home advertising, with the rest from commercial radio broadcasting and the digital advertising exchange.
However, most of the loss before tax came from the audio business at £138.7m versus £1.4m from outdoor advertising. Global’s total borrowings stand at £1.9bn.
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