Launched | February 25, 2023 |
---|---|
Division of | The CW |
Country of origin | United States |
Key people | Dennis Miller (CW President) [1] |
Headquarters | Burbank, California |
Major broadcasting contracts | |
Official website | www |
CW Sports is the sports programming division of The CW that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried on the network.
The division was formed in 2023 with The CW's acquisition of broadcast rights to LIV Golf. The CW also airs college football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference, the documentary series 100 Days to Indy and the Inside the NFL studio program.
In August 2022, Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW network. [2] Nexstar focused on broadening the network's programming, including adding sports. [3]
In January 2023, The CW agreed to a three-year broadcast deal with LIV Golf, the upstart professional golf tour financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, marking the first-ever national sports broadcasting contract for the network. Weekday rounds will be available on The CW's streaming apps, while weekend rounds will air on the broadcast network. The announcement led to the launch of the CW Sports division. [4] The network and main owner Nexstar were criticized by the National Press Club for participating in what it considers an attempt by the Saudi government to rehabilitate its image following the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. [5]
On February 14, 2023, the network said its LIV Golf coverage would be carried in 100% of U.S. media markets. However, as existing contracts at the time only obligated CW affiliates to air prime time and Saturday morning E/I programming, some of them declined to carry LIV coverage. Among the refraining stations were the eight CW stations owned by CBS News and Stations, ostensibly due to CBS Sports' longstanding partnership with the competing PGA Tour. In many of the affected markets, LIV coverage would air on a Nexstar-owned station, a subchannel carrying a digital multicast network, or on another station not connected with The CW or Nexstar under a secondary affiliation agreement. [6] [7]
On February 17, 2023, The CW announced it had picked up the rights to 100 Days to Indy , a documentary series following the leadup to the 2023 Indianapolis 500 produced by Penske Entertainment and Vice Media. [8]
Throughout the summer of 2023, The CW announced the acquisition of several sports properties. On June 7, 2023, The CW announced it had acquired the rights to the series Inside the NFL for its 47th season, which previously aired via streaming service Paramount+ and previous to that, was cable-exclusive to HBO, then Showtime, bringing the series to broadcast television for the first time. NFL Films will continue to produce the show, [9] with former Steelers safety Ryan Clark as the new host. Channing Crowder, Jay Cutler, Chad Johnson and Chris Long will also join the show as analysts. [10]
On July 13, 2023, it was announced that The CW had acquired the exclusive broadcast rights to 50 Atlantic Coast Conference college football and basketball games each season through 2026–27, with Gray Television's Raycom Sports division, who previously produced syndicated ACC broadcasts, remaining the production partner. The package had been with Fox Sports Net before transitioning to Bally Sports in the 2021 season with the network's ownership transfer. [11]
On July 28, 2023, the network and NASCAR announced a rights deal for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, rights previously spread among several cable and broadcast networks. The deal will encompass the 2025–2031 racing seasons. [12] On April 11, 2024, It was announced that the deal was moved up to September 2024, with coverage beginning with the Food City 300 regular season finale race at Bristol Motor Speedway, with NBC Sports producing the broadcasts using its NASCAR on NBC staff. [13]
On November 7, 2023, it was announced that WWE NXT would be moving to The CW from USA Network in a five-year deal that will begin in October 2024. [14]
In January 2024, the division's name was amended to simply "CW Sports" as part of The CW's new brand identity. The rebranding had notably removed the article "The" from the network's logo and certain use cases (while maintaining "The CW" as its verbal branding); chief marketing officer Chris Spadaccini specifically cited the sports division as a context where "CW" worked better than "The CW". [15]
Outside of network programming, several CW affiliates have carried telecasts of basketball, football and in some cases, other collegiate sporting events (such as baseball or hockey) that are produced by syndicators, while a few carry games from local teams of major professional sports leagues such as Major League Baseball (the New York Mets on WPIX [16] ) and the NBA (the Los Angeles Clippers on KTLA [17] ).
Seventeen affiliates of The CW, eight of which were owned by CBS News and Stations, declined to carry the network's sports coverage of LIV Golf, which as weekend afternoon programming was not specified, nor mandated, under the network's affiliation contracts as of LIV Golf's debut on The CW. In all of the affected markets, the network has made secondary affiliation arrangements with other stations. [18] [19] Eight additional stations agreed to carry LIV Golf and subsequently affiliated with the CW on September 1, 2023: Nexstar-owned WPHL-TV, KRON-TV and WTTA; Hearst-owned KQCA; Gray Television-owned WPCH-TV; Scripps-owned WMYD; and Sinclair-owned WPNT and KUNS-TV. [20] [21] [22] [23]
Market | Station | Channel | Owner | Regular affiliation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago, IL | WGN-TV | 9 | Nexstar Media Group | Independent |
Elmira, NY | WETM-DT2 | 18.2 | Nexstar Media Group | Antenna TV |
Erie, PA | WFXP-DT4 | 66.4 | Mission Broadcasting | Antenna TV |
New Haven–Hartford, CT | WCTX | 59 | Nexstar Media Group | MyNetworkTV |
San Diego, CA | KUSI-TV | 51 | Nexstar Media Group | Independent |
Traverse City–Cadillac, MI | WMNN-LD | 26 | Bridge Media Networks | NewsNet |
WPNT is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate WPGH-TV. The two stations share studios on Ivory Avenue in the city's Summer Hill section, where WPNT's transmitter is also located.
WPHL-TV is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. The station also maintains a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, WPHL-TV has studios in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia; it maintains a channel sharing agreement with Vineland, New Jersey–licensed Univision station WUVP-DT, under which the two stations transmit using WPHL-TV's spectrum from a tower in the Roxborough antenna farm.
Fox Sports, also referred to as Fox Sports Media Group and stylized in all caps, is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network.
KASW, branded on-air as Arizona 61, is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate KNXV-TV. The two stations share studios on North 44th Street on the city's east side; KASW's primary transmitter is located on South Mountain.
WTTV, licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and WTTK, licensed to Kokomo, Indiana, are television stations affiliated with CBS and serving the Indianapolis area. They are owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate WXIN. The stations share studios on Network Place in northwestern Indianapolis. WTTV's transmitter is located on State Road 252 in Trafalgar, while WTTK's transmitter sits on West 73rd Street on the northern outskirts of Indianapolis.
WISH-TV is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is locally owned by Circle City Broadcasting alongside Marion-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WNDY-TV and low-power, Class A getTV affiliate WIIH-CD. The stations share studios on North Meridian Street on the near north side of Indianapolis; WISH-TV and WNDY-TV also share transmitter facilities on Walnut Drive in the Augusta section of the city's northwest side.
WKRN-TV is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road on Nashville's southeast side, and its transmitter is located in Forest Hills, Tennessee.
WNDY-TV is a television station licensed to Marion, Indiana, United States, serving the Indianapolis area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is locally owned by Circle City Broadcasting alongside Indianapolis-licensed CW affiliate WISH-TV and low-power, Class A getTV affiliate WIIH-CD. The stations share studios on North Meridian Street on the near north side of Indianapolis; WNDY-TV and WISH-TV also share transmitter facilities on Walnut Drive in the Augusta section of the city's northwest side. Despite Marion being WNDY-TV's city of license, the station maintains no physical presence there.
KBVO is a television station licensed to Llano, Texas, United States, serving the Austin area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside NBC affiliate KXAN-TV ; Nexstar also provides certain services to KNVA, a de facto owned-and-operated station of The CW, under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Vaughan Media. The three stations share studios on West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and San Gabriel Street ; KBVO's transmitter is located near the intersection of TX 71 and Llano County Road 307 in unincorporated Llano County.
The CW Television Network is an American commercial broadcast television network that is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75-percent ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the first letters of the names of its two founding co-owners CBS Corporation and Warner Bros., with CBS Corporation being merged with the second iteration of Viacom to form ViacomCBS and Warner Bros. being owned by Time Warner, later AT&T's WarnerMedia. Nexstar closed its acquisition of a controlling interest in the network on October 3, 2022, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each retaining a 12.5-percent ownership stake.
The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television syndication service feed of The CW. It is intended primarily for American television markets ranked #100 and above by Nielsen Media Research estimates. The service is primarily carried on digital subchannels and multichannel subscription television providers, although it maintains primary affiliations on full-power and low-power stations in certain markets.
Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada include:
In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.
Golf coverage on Fox Sports properties have occurred occasionally since 1999. From 1999 through 2002, its regional sports network group Fox Sports Networks (FSN) sub-licensed early-round coverage of PGA Tour events from Golf Channel.
The 2021–22 afternoon network television schedule for the four major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the weekday and weekend afternoon hours from September 2021 to August 2022. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning and cancelled shows from the 2020–21 season.
In American television in 2023, notable events included television show debuts, finales, and cancellations; channel launches, closures, and re-brandings; stations changing or adding their network affiliations; information on controversies, business transactions, and carriage disputes; and deaths of those who made various contributions to the medium.
The 2023–24 afternoon network television schedule for the four major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the weekday and weekend afternoon hours from September 2023 to August 2024. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning and cancelled shows from the 2022–23 season. The daytime schedules for the four major networks that offer afternoon programming are expected to remain consistent with the prior television season.
On September 1, 2023, a series of network affiliation changes took place in nine television markets throughout the United States involving The CW Television Network. These changes were initiated after Nexstar Media Group, which owned multiple key affiliates in the network, acquired a 75 percent stake in the network on October 3, 2022.
The ACC on The CW is a presentation of Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) college athletics broadcast by The CW, and produced by Raycom Sports.