ESPN college football broadcast camera on display prior to the All State Sugar Bowl playoff game between the Texas Longhorns and the Washington Huskies on Monday, January 1, 2024 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA.
Nick Tre. Blacksmith | Sportswire Icon | Getty Images
With the aim of strengthening its sports offering, Discovery of Warner Bros. signed a five-year sublicensing agreement with Disney ESPN will broadcast the first round and quarterfinal games of the College Football Playoff.
Warner Bros. TNT Discovery will offer two first round games this year and next year and add two additional quarterfinal games starting in 2026. Disney also has the option to sublicense a semifinal game to Warner Bros. Discovery from the third year of the agreement. if he wants, according to people familiar with the matter.
Disney will retain exclusivity on the championship game for the duration of the contract, which runs through 2031, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the details are confidential. Disney pays about $1.3 billion a year for the rights to the entire College Football Playoff.
The new 12-team College Football Playoff slate will debut in December, replacing a four-team tournament that began in 2014. Under the new format, the top four teams are byes while the No. 5 seeded teams to No. 12 play first round matches. at the stadium of the highest ranked team.
ESPN will produce the games and primarily use ESPN talent for the broadcasts, which will be branded by TNT, people close to the broadcast said. Under the sublicensing agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery pays ESPN an average of “hundreds of millions” per year for games over a five-year period, but less in the first and second years, where the company only offers two games per year. people said.
Warner Bros. Discovery holds exclusive rights to sublicense the games for the duration of the transaction.
“It’s exciting to add TNT Sports, another well-respected broadcaster, to the College Football Playoff family,” Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, said in a statement. “Sports fans across the country are well-versed in their work across a wide variety of sports properties over the past two decades, and we can’t wait to see what new and innovative ideas they will bring to the promotion and broadcast of these games .”
The first cycle of this year’s CFP will take place on December 20 and 21.
CFP in, NBA out?
Warner Bros. Discovery plans to add the games to its Max sports tier. The company is focusing on live sports as it is in the midst of difficult negotiations with the National Basketball Association for a package of live games.
TNT has been a partner of the NBA for nearly 40 years but risks losing games to Comcastowned by NBCUniversal and Amazon if Warner Bros. Discovery decides whether to waive its corresponding rights or, potentially, whether the league chooses to ignore those rights.
College football is one of the most popular television programs. Michigan’s semifinal victory over Alabama last year drew an average audience of 27.2 million viewers – the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since 2018.
Even if Warner Bros. Discovery loses the NBA, it will now have both the CFP and NBA until mid-2025, in addition to several weeks of games for the NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament, men’s and women’s soccer , NASCAR, Major League Baseball. and the National Hockey League. This should help the company in its upcoming distribution renewal contracts for TNT and its other cable networks.
ESPN’s sublicensing to Warner Bros. Discovery also keeps all CFP games on Venu Sports, the new sports streaming service developed by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery and which is scheduled to launch in the fall.
Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal.
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