CW Sports to Stream Via ESPN in Unique Content Pact

Key Points:

• Nexstar’s CW network will stream about 800 hours of college football, basketball, professional bull riding, WWE, NASCAR, PBA bowling, and professional volleyball exclusively on ESPN’s direct-to-consumer subscription service, with CW managing ad sales tied to these games.
• The partnership allows ESPN to expand its sports content offerings with games and events CW has rights to but ESPN does not, such as ACC, Mountain West, Pac-12 games, WWE content, NASCAR, and Professional Bull Riders, attracting new sports fans to ESPN’s platform.
• This collaboration reflects a broader industry trend of bundling content across platforms to address consumer subscription fatigue, with ESPN already offering other third-party sports services like NFL Network, NFL RedZone, and MLB.tv.
• CW’s shift towards sports programming under Nexstar has increased its weekend sports viewership, with 28% of its primetime audience also watching sports on weekends, up from 21% the previous year, highlighting the importance of building habitual viewing habits.
• The deal benefits both parties by expanding ESPN’s streaming content and audience while providing CW with greater reach and advertising revenue without launching a separate streaming service.