Learfield Acquires FRMS Collegiate Multimedia Rights

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, July 9, 2015

Learfield Sports, which offers radio play-by-play for collegiate sports, continues to build out its portfolio of rights holders with the acquisition of Front Row Marketing Services' collegiate multimedia rights properties from Comcast Spectacor. FRMS regional executives Nino Vanin and Keith Bradshaw will continue to lead these businesses and will report to Learfield Senior Vice President Steve Gowan.

"We are pleased to welcome these properties to the Learfield family," said Learfield President/CEO Greg Brown. "Collegiate multimedia rights are the core of our company and so opportunities like this will always be of interest to us, because of what we believe we can offer the schools and our new team members."

Following the close of the transaction, all of the employees of Front Row Marketing Services' collegiate business became employees of Learfield. There are no staff changes planned. The Front Row Marketing Services name will no longer be used in connection with the college multimedia rights business. That business will now operate under the Learfield Sports banner and will benefit from sales representation by Learfield's national sponsorship team.

The new Learfield partnerships are James Madison University, Drexel University, University of Alaska Anchorage, St. Cloud State University, George Mason University, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Fordham University, University of California Irvine, Colonial Athletic Association, University of North Dakota and Radford University.

"We are grateful to Comcast Spectacor for working with us to close this transaction, and we look forward to serving the schools and conference partners and associates that are now a part of our family," added Brown.