- Mike Shields, Mediaweek

Turner has launched its own sports application for the iPhone. In a sign of the times, the offering is skewed toward the social networking crowd.

The company today released SportsNow, a free app aimed at providing fans with news and live scores across multiple sports -- including sports that are not covered by Turner’s networks, like NCAA Men’s Basketball and the National Hockey League. To date, Turner has focused on managing applications for leagues that it already partners with on the Web, such as the National Basketball Association.

Now Turner is entering a crowded space, dominated by apps from sports media giants like ESPN and MLB.com as well as iPhone native apps. But the company is looking to differentiate SportsNow’s by incorporating feeds from both Facebook and Twitter.

Fans can customize their SportsNow to follow multiple sports and teams, and can also comment and chat with other fans as they track the latest scores.

The company has signed Dodge Ram Truck as SportsNow’s charter sponsor.