Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN strike deal to broadcast College Football Playoff games

From NBC Universal: 2024-05-22 17:46:01

Warner Bros. Discovery has signed a five-year sublicensing deal with Disney’s ESPN to broadcast College Football Playoff games. The deal includes first-round and quarterfinal games, with TNT carrying two games this year and next, and adding two additional quarterfinal games starting in 2026. Disney will retain exclusivity on the championship game. ESPN is paying about $1.3 billion per year for rights to the entire College Football Playoff.

The new 12-team College Football Playoff format will debut in December, replacing the previous four-team tournament. Under the new format, the top four teams will get byes, while teams seeded No. 5 through No. 12 will play first-round games at the home stadium of the higher-ranked team. ESPN will produce the games, with Warner Bros. Discovery paying an average of “hundreds of millions” per year for the rights over five years. Warner Bros. Discovery has the exclusive rights to sublicense the games for the length of the deal.

Warner Bros. Discovery will add the College Football Playoff games to its Max sports tier, as it strengthens its sports offerings. The company is in negotiations with the NBA for a package of live games, with TNT potentially at risk of losing NBA games to other networks if a deal is not reached. Despite potential NBA losses, Warner Bros. Discovery will now have both the CFP and the NBA until mid-2025, in addition to other sporting events like March Madness, NASCAR, MLB, and NHL games. The sublicensing agreement with ESPN also ensures that all CFP games will be available on Venu Sports, a new sports streaming service being developed by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery.



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