Global buys majority stake in Gary Neville's The Overlap

Global, a major radio company, acquired Gary Neville’s popular YouTube channel, The Overlap, signalling streaming’s growing influence

Martin O'Neill was the latest guest on the 'Stick to Football' podcast. Pic credit: The Overlap.

The YouTube media business co-founded by Gary Neville has been bought by one of Europe’s biggest commercial radio companies, in the latest sign of the streaming platform’s increasing influence in sports broadcasting.

Global, which already owns the likes of LBC and podcasts including The News Agents, has taken a majority stake in The Overlap, co-founded with Scott Melvin by the former Manchester United defender, who remains one of the channel’s most prominent figures.

The deal aims to use Neville’s outlet to emulate the success of another video podcast network founded by a former footballer – Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger, which regularly tops the podcast charts with its “The Rest Is …” stable of shows.

Work is now underway to expand it into a “multi-format sports media network”, as YouTube use continues to increase across audiences of all ages, with sports punditry a big draw.

The Overlap’s content includes its flagship show Stick to Football, in which Neville and his fellow pundits Jamie Carragher, Jill Scott, Roy Keane and Ian Wright are often joined by guests.

It also confirms Neville as another former player able to tap into the power of new media. Under the deal for The Overlap, Neville will remain co-chair of the company.

He also co-founded the sports entertainment production company Buzz 16 in 2017.

Neville launched The Overlap only in 2021, but it is now one of the UK’s most popular football content channels. The company said it has more than 38m monthly views on YouTube and achieved 2.2bn views across all platforms in 2025.

The Overlap has already attracted attention for the often astringent views of Keane, never one to pull his punches in his assessments, as well as with its interviews with the likes of the former Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli and Wayne Rooney.

Wright’s views on the treatment of Jude Bellingham also earned headlines.

It has even dipped its toe in live broadcasting, recently winning the rights to the German Bundesliga. It shares the rights with the BBC and That’s Football, another YouTube channel run by the YouTuber Mark Goldbridge.

Guardian