Old Trapper is renewing its sponsorship of sports broadcaster Jim Rome for a seventh consecutive year, extending a media partnership that now spans radio, streaming, FAST television and social platforms. The agreement keeps the meat-snack brand integrated into The Jim Rome Show through on-air mentions, branded content and the recurring “What’s Your Beef?” audience segment.
Sports marketing is no longer confined to a single broadcast channel. Radio personalities can now reach audiences through terrestrial and satellite radio, FAST channels, connected TVs, streaming services and social platforms—giving advertisers more opportunities to build recurring associations around personalities and programming.
Old Trapper’s renewed partnership with Jim Rome illustrates that shift.
The meat-snack brand has extended its sponsorship of The Jim Rome Show for a seventh consecutive year, maintaining a relationship that connects the brand with Rome’s sports-focused audience across multiple distribution channels.
The renewed agreement includes on-air mentions, integrated content and social media engagement. It also brings back “What’s Your Beef?”, a recurring segment that invites Rome’s audience to weigh in on sports topics and other issues.
For Old Trapper, the value of the arrangement is less about a single advertising placement and more about sustained integration into a recognizable media property.
That distinction matters in an increasingly fragmented advertising market.
From radio sponsorship to cross-platform media
The Jim Rome Show is distributed through broadcast and satellite radio while also reaching viewers through the Jim Rome FAST channel on smart TVs and streaming platforms including Amazon Fire TV and Roku. The program also maintains a presence on X.
That distribution gives Old Trapper exposure across several forms of media consumption rather than relying solely on traditional radio audiences.
The strategy reflects a broader development in sports media: personalities and shows are becoming portable media brands. A broadcaster’s audience can move from a radio broadcast to a connected-TV stream, then to social media, without necessarily leaving the same content ecosystem.
For advertisers, that creates opportunities to build campaigns around audience identity rather than a single screen.
It also changes how sponsorships can be structured. Instead of simply attaching a logo to a program, brands can become recurring participants in segments, conversations and social interactions.
Old Trapper’s “What’s Your Beef?” segment is an example of that model. The brand name is embedded into a piece of programming that is designed to generate audience participation rather than functioning solely as a conventional commercial.
Why recurring sponsorships matter
The seventh-year renewal also highlights the value of consistency in sports and entertainment advertising.
A sponsorship that continues over several years can become familiar to an audience in a way that a short-term campaign may not. The advertiser effectively becomes associated with the personality, program and recurring content format.
That can be particularly valuable for consumer packaged goods companies operating in highly competitive categories.
Meat snacks compete for attention across grocery stores, convenience retailers, e-commerce platforms and sporting occasions. Building an association with sports culture can help a brand establish a recognizable consumption context without relying exclusively on product-focused advertising.
Old Trapper is using that relationship to position its beef jerky alongside sports conversation and fan engagement.
The approach resembles strategies used across sports media by major advertisers, from beverage and food brands to financial services and automotive companies. The strongest integrations increasingly connect brands with the content itself, allowing advertisers to benefit from the credibility and audience relationship already established by the media property.
FAST channels add another advertising layer
The inclusion of the Jim Rome FAST channel is particularly relevant to the advertising technology ecosystem.
FAST, or free ad-supported streaming television, has become an important distribution model for publishers, broadcasters and content owners seeking to reach audiences outside traditional pay-TV environments.
Unlike conventional radio, FAST channels provide a television-oriented environment where programming can be distributed through connected-TV platforms and supported by advertising.
That creates another potential layer of audience targeting and measurement.
Platforms such as Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV ecosystem have helped normalize streaming television as an advertising environment. Meanwhile, advertisers are increasingly looking for ways to combine the reach of television with the flexibility and measurement associated with digital advertising.
A sponsorship that exists across radio, FAST and social media sits at the intersection of those trends.
The challenge for brands is measurement. Cross-platform campaigns can generate broader exposure, but comparing audience behavior across radio listeners, streaming viewers and social audiences is considerably more complex than evaluating a single channel.
As sports media becomes more fragmented, advertisers will increasingly need unified measurement frameworks that can show how exposure across different environments contributes to awareness, engagement and ultimately sales.
Audience participation is becoming part of the media product
“What’s Your Beef?” also reflects another important change in sports media: audiences increasingly expect to participate rather than simply listen.
Sports commentary has naturally evolved toward conversation. Fans debate teams, players, trades and officiating decisions across social platforms, podcasts, livestreams and online communities.
A branded segment that invites listeners to contribute can therefore provide more than sponsorship visibility. It gives the advertiser a recurring association with audience participation.
For Old Trapper, that creates a connection between the brand and the conversational character of Rome’s program.
The company says the partnership reinforces its relationship with sports fans, while Rome describes the sponsorship as an established part of the show’s identity.
Whether such integrations produce measurable incremental sales is difficult to establish from sponsorship exposure alone. But the longevity of the arrangement indicates that both parties see value in the continuing association.
The bigger shift is media fragmentation
Old Trapper’s seventh-year renewal comes at a time when sports audiences are increasingly distributed across traditional broadcasting, streaming platforms, FAST channels and social media.
For advertisers, that fragmentation makes recognizable personalities and recurring content formats potentially more valuable. Instead of buying disconnected impressions across multiple platforms, marketers can build campaigns around a common media property and extend that relationship across channels.
That is increasingly becoming the role of sports sponsorships in the digital media era.
Old Trapper’s partnership with Jim Rome is therefore more than a renewal of a traditional radio sponsorship. It represents a cross-platform advertising strategy built around personality, recurring content and an audience that follows sports media wherever it is distributed.
Market Landscape
Sports media is becoming increasingly fragmented across linear television, radio, streaming, FAST channels, podcasts and social platforms. This creates both an opportunity and a measurement challenge for advertisers.
FAST services from companies such as Roku and Amazon are expanding the number of connected-TV environments where sports-related programming can reach viewers. At the same time, social platforms give sports personalities additional distribution and engagement channels.
For brands, the resulting media mix increasingly requires cross-platform audience measurement, contextual targeting and integrated sponsorship strategies rather than isolated channel buys.
Old Trapper’s relationship with Jim Rome fits this model by maintaining a consistent brand presence across multiple forms of sports media.
Top Insights
- Old Trapper renewed its Jim Rome sponsorship for a seventh consecutive year, extending a long-running sports marketing relationship across radio, FAST and social media.
- The “What’s Your Beef?” segment gives Old Trapper recurring branded integration while encouraging audience participation around sports and broader cultural conversations.
- Distribution through FAST channels such as Roku and Amazon Fire TV expands the sponsorship beyond traditional radio into connected-TV advertising environments.
- The partnership demonstrates how sports personalities are evolving into cross-platform media properties with audiences distributed across broadcast, streaming and social channels.
- For advertisers, the strategy highlights the growing importance of cross-platform measurement as sports audiences fragment across increasingly diverse media environments.
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