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Sports broadcasting contracts in the United States

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This page refers to sports broadcasting contracts in the United States.

Baseball

Major League Baseball

National Television

  • Fox:[1] 12 Saturday afternoon games; All-Star Game; one League Championship Series (shared with Fox Sports 1); World Series
  • Fox Sports 1: 40 Saturday afternoon games; two Division Series; one League Championship Series (shared with Fox)
  • TBS: Sunday MLB on TBS airs 13 afternoons (without local blackouts) starting July 6. Postseason coverage will air one Wild Card Play in Game, Two Divisional Series and LCS of one league(overflow games on TNT if needed).[2]
  • ESPN: Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday Night Games; Opening Day games. Plus one Wild Card game and any regular season tie breaker.[3]
  • MLB Network: 26 Thursday night and 26 Saturday night games; various other games; Two Divisional Series games

Local Television

  • Additionally, local or regional broadcasters contract with the MLB team in their area for the right to broadcast a number of regular season games locally. These broadcasters include both over-the-air television stations as well as regional cable sports channels. (This includes WGN-TV in Chicago, which until 2015 also aired its games on the WGN America national feed.) Games broadcast locally or regionally are available nationwide (except those affected by local blackout restrictions) on the pay-per-view MLB Extra Innings package.

National Radio

  • ESPN Radio: a Saturday game of the week, Sunday night, opening day and holiday games, plus the entire postseason

Local Radio

  • MLB teams also contract with local broadcasters to air games on radio. Several teams have multiple affiliates covering those games. The flagship stations can air all games of the teams they contract with, other affiliates must allow ESPN radio coverage to air during the postseason.

World Baseball Classic

MLB Network has rights to the 2017 edition of the World Baseball Classic. In addition to the 39 tournament matches, MLBN televises the four final qualifiers.[4] ESPN Deportes holds Spanish-language rights to the WBC.

College Baseball

Post-season ESPN currently broadcasts the College World Series on its family of networks.

Regular-season Nationally-televised regular-season games are contracted through each conference and appear on CBS Sports Network, ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU, Fox Sports 1, FSN, Fox College Sports, including several school- and conference-specific networks (Big Ten Network, BYUtv, the Pac-12 Network, and the Longhorn Network).

Little League Baseball

ESPN has rights to broadcast the entire Little League World Series, as well as the finals of the eight regional tournaments that determine the U.S. representatives in that competition. It distributes coverage among its family of networks; the final is traditionally carried by ABC, whose sports division is now run by ESPN.

Minor League Baseball

CBS Sports Network has a contract with MiLB to air one game each week.[5]

Nippon Professional Baseball

Australian Baseball League

MLB Network has the full rights.

Basketball

National Basketball Association

National Television

  • ABC: Fifteen regular season games (Christmas Day doubleheader and late season Sunday afternoons); nine first- and second-round playoff games (mostly on weekend afternoons); NBA Finals through 2025
  • TNT: Fifty two regular season games (mostly on Thursday night doubleheaders); All-Star Weekend; up to forty playoff games including one Conference Finals series per year through 2025
  • ESPN: Seventy three regular season games (mostly on Wednesday and Friday night doubleheaders; occasional Sunday night games); playoff games including one Conference Finals series per year through 2025
  • NBA TV: Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday night games and some early-round playoff games through 2025

Local Television

  • Additionally, local or regional broadcasters contract with the NBA team in their area for the right to broadcast a number of regular season games locally. These broadcasters can be traditional over-the-air television stations as well as regional cable sports channels. WGN, then a Chicago-based superstation, broadcast a limited number of Chicago Bulls regular season games on their national feed until 2014, fewer than they provided locally. If ESPN chooses to opt out of airing all of the games on their night, NBA TV airs a game in its place. Games in the first round of the playoffs can be aired by regional broadcasters, unless the national broadcaster has exclusive rights. Games in the first round not selected by national broadcasters are usually broadcast by NBA TV.

National Radio

  • ESPN Radio: usually one game from the Sunday afternoon package, one game on Thursday night, and postseason coverage including all games in the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals

Local Radio

  • NBA teams also contract with local radio broadcasters to air their games. Teams may also have affiliates air their games.

Women's National Basketball Association

  • ESPN2: select weeknight games, playoffs, and WNBA Finals; All Star Game airs on ESPN; provisional coverage on ABC through 2022; additional games on NBATV

College Basketball

Post-season

  • NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament: CBS/Turner
    • Every game in the NCAA Tournament will be telecast live nationally on either CBS or one of three Turner networks—TBS, TNT, or truTV. Coverage is split as follows:
      • The First Four (the expanded "play-in" round) airs on truTV.
      • In the second and third rounds (the stages that were previously called the "first" and "second" rounds), all four networks air games. CBS airs one "featured" game in each time slot, with the other three networks carrying other games.
      • The Sweet Sixteen (regional semifinals) are split between CBS and TBS.
      • For 2014 and 2015, two Elite Eight (regional finals) will air on TBS and two will air on CBS. TBS will broadcast the national semifinfals, and CBS the title game. Beginning in 2016, TBS will air all three Final Four games in even-numbered years and CBS in odd-numbered years through 2024.
    • All games are also streamed via the NCAA/CBS March Madness On Demand service. The new contract will allow Turner to develop its own streaming service for the tournament, alongside MMOD.
  • NIT post-season & Pre-season: ESPN networks with internet streaming on ESPN3.
  • NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament: ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU with internet streaming of all games on ESPN3.

Regular-season

  • Nationally-televised regular-season games are contracted through each conference and appear on CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, FSN, Fox College Sports, NBCSN, and others, including several school- and conference-specific networks (Big Ten Network, BYUtv, the Pac-12 Network, and the Longhorn Network).
  • National broadcasts on the radio are provided by Compass Media Networks including the Big Ten Tournament and Westwood One including 17 conference tournament championship games, the NCAA Tournament, NCAA Division 2 men's basketball Championship, and NIT Semifinals and Championship. ESPN Radio provides national coverage of the Big 12 Championship game.

FIBA

ESPN has English and Spanish rights from 2013 to 2015 to FIBA events including the following:[6][7]

Other Leagues

Cricket

Cycling

Football

National Football League

CBS has rights through the 2022-2023 season to the following:[10][11]

  • AFC Sunday Afternoon package, see more
  • One Thanksgiving game
  • One Wild Card game
  • One/Two Divisional playoff game
  • AFC Championship
  • Super Bowls 50 (2016), LIII (2019), and LVI (2022)

CBS has rights through the 2015-2016 season with a one-year option for 2016-2017 to the following:

ESPN has rights through the 2021-2022 season to the following:[12][13]

Fox has rights through the 2022-2023 season to the following:[11][15]

  • NFC Sunday Afternoon package, see more
  • One Thanksgiving game
  • One Wild Card game
  • One/Two Divisional playoff game
  • NFC Championship
  • Super Bowls LI (2017), LIV (2020), and LVII (2023)

NBC has rights through the 2022-2023 season to the following:[11][16]

NFL Network televises 16 games under the Thursday Night Football banner during the regular season (14 on Thursday, two late season games on Saturday).

DirecTV, through NFL Sunday Ticket, has pay-per-view rights to all regular season Sunday afternoon games through 2021.

NFL on Westwood One Sports has exclusive national radio rights through the 2017-2018 season.[17][18]

Sports USA has national radio rights to regular season Sunday afternoon doubleheaders sublicensed from Dial Global.

Compass Media Networks has national radio rights to regular season Sunday afternoon games for 10 teams sublicensed from Dial Global.

Each NFL team has local television stations with rights to preseason games and radio stations with rights to all games.

Sirius XM has exclusive satellite radio rights to home, away, and, if available, national broadcast radio feeds of all games. Also has rights to online streaming of games for its subscribers starting with the 2011 season.

College Football

Post-season

Regular-season

Radio

Arena football

  • CBS Sports Network: Has rights nineteen regular season games and two playoff games until 2014.
  • ESPN has rights to broadcast more than 10 regular season and postseason games per year, including ArenaBowl and one conference championship game, as well as 75 or more games annually on ESPN3.

Other professional leagues

Golf

Men

Women

Hockey

National Hockey League

  • NBCSN: One to three regular-season games/week, All-Star Game, playoffs, Stanley Cup Finals (games 2, 3), through 2021.[25]
  • NBC: Black Friday game, New Year's Day game, Sunday afternoon late-season games, weekend afternoon playoff games, and Stanley Cup Finals (games 1, 4–7), through 2021.[25]
  • NHL Network: Wednesday, Friday and occasional Sunday games. Simulcasts of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada (Saturday nights); the simulcast can be blacked out if a local channel is carrying coverage of the same game.
  • CNBC and USA: Stanley Cup Playoffs overflows

Additionally, viewers near the Canadian border, especially in the Seattle, Detroit and Buffalo markets, can view CBC broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada, playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals. CBC reaches most cable subscribers in Michigan, the Buffalo area, and much of the Seattle TV market. and CBC broadcasts of NHL playoff games often get better ratings in those markets than the simultaneous American broadcast when both are available.

Local or regional broadcasters contract with the NHL team in their area for the right to broadcast a number of regular season games locally. These broadcasters can be traditional over-the-air television stations as well as regional cable sports channels. While the Chicago Blackhawks broadcast some games on WGN-TV, these games were not available for the WGN America feed due to league broadcast regulations but they are shown on WGN in Canada (same feed as WGN-TV).

Teams also have contracts with local radio broadcasters to air their games.

Radio

Dial Global (Stanley Cup Finals); games also simulcast on Sirius XM satellite radio.

The Southern Professional Hockey League

  • America One: Regular season, playoffs and Championships through 2014

College Ice Hockey

Other Ice Hockey Leagues

Kontinental Hockey League: ESPN3.com

Ice Hockey World Championships: Universal Sports

World Junior Ice Hockey Championships: NHL Network

MasterCard Memorial Cup: NHL Network

American Hockey League: select games on NHL Network, select regional coverage by local broadcasters, All-Star Game and Skills Competition on regional sports networks

Champions Hockey League: ONE World Sports

Horse Racing

Triple Crown

Breeders' Cup

Road to the Kentucky Derby

Lacrosse

Major League Lacrosse

National Lacrosse League

College Lacrosse

Varsity lacrosse

Club Lacrosse

  • MCLA: Semifinals and Championship of both division 1 and 2 broadcast nationally on Fox College Sports, usually the Pacific affiliate. Championships also simulcast on the MCLA website.
  • BYUtv Sports: At least one home MCLA game featuring BYU, but BYUtv Sports has rights to all home games.

International Lacrosse

Motor sports

NASCAR

Fox Sports and NBC Sports have contracts for all NASCAR events through at least 2024.

IndyCar

Formula One

NBC Sports has rights from 2013 through 2016. Races will be televised by NBC, NBCSN or CNBC and streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra.[32][33]

Other

Multi-discipline events

Rugby

Rugby league

Rugby union

NBC Sports and Universal Sports have rights to:

DirecTV has rights to:[38][39]

Rugby sevens

NBC Sports has rights to:

Soccer

FIFA

Fox Sports, in English, and Telemundo, in Spanish, have television rights to FIFA events from 2015 to 2026 including the following:[41]

UEFA

ESPN, in English and Spanish, has rights to UEFA events from 2012 to 2016 including the following:[42][43]

Fox Sports has rights to the following:[44]

ESPN Deportes has rights to the following:

CONMEBOL

CONCACAF

Fox Sports 1, in English, has rights to CONCACAF events from 2012 to 2016 including the following:[46][47]

Univision Deportes, in Spanish and Portuguese, has rights to CONCACAF events from 2012 to 2022 including the following:[48][49]

  • CONCACAF Gold Cup: Matches will be televised on Univision, UniMás, Galavisión, and Univision Deportes Network, and will be streamed online and on mobile.
  • CONCACAF Champions League: Matches will be televised on Univision, UniMás, Galavisión, and Univision Deportes, and will be streamed online and on mobile.

USA Soccer

U.S. Men's National Team

ESPN has English rights to friendlies and all home World Cup qualifiers from 2010 to 2014. Matches will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2.[50] beiN SPORT has English rights to all away World Cup qualifiers from 2010 to 2014.[51]

NBCU has rights to 4 friendlies a year from 2012 to 2014. Matches will be televised on NBC and NBCSN.[52]

Univision has Spanish rights to ten national team matches per year from 2010 to 2014. Matches will be televised on Univision, UniMás, or Galavisión.[53]

Major League Soccer

Starting in 2015, ESPN2 and Fox Sports 1 will air a Sunday evening doubleheader of MLS games.

Games not televised nationally are aired by regional sports networks or local broadcast television stations. Teams may also have a contract with a local radio broadcaster to air their games. Some teams air games exclusively in Spanish on radio, others have English only or an English and Spanish radio broadcaster.

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup

National Teams

National Competitions

Mexican Club Soccer

English Club Soccer

Spanish Club Soccer

Italian Club Soccer

French Club Soccer

German Club Soccer

Other Club Soccer

Swimming

NBC Sports has rights to the following events with coverage varying on NBC, NBCSN, and Universal Sports

Tennis

Australian Open

  • ESPN and Tennis Channel have the contracts. Coverage is aired on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, Tennis Channel and DirecTV.

French Open

  • NBC Sports, ESPN and Tennis Channel have the contracts through 2024. Coverage is aired on NBC, ESPN2, ESPN3, Tennis Channel and DirecTV.
    • ESPN2 shows live coverage in the morning, while Tennis Channel shows live coverage in the afternoon. NBC shows weekend morning and Memorial Day early round matches in the afternoon via tape delay. If a match is still being played, it will be shown live. ESPN2 or Tennis Channel cannot show NBC's tape delayed matches. NBC also tape delays the men's and women's semifinals, broadcasting both in the afternoon (all time zones) on the same day. NBC broadcasts both finals live.

The Championships, Wimbledon

  • ESPN[56][57] and Tennis Channel have contracts through 2023. DirecTV also provides coverage. Coverage is as follows:
    • Days 1-4: ESPN2, ESPN3 and DirecTV
    • Days 5 and 6: ESPN, ESPN3 and DirecTV
    • Day 7: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and DirecTV
    • Days 8 and 9: ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3
    • Days 10-13 including the ladies' and gentlemen's singles finals: ESPN and ESPN3
    • Same-day replays are aired on Tennis Channel throughout the tournament. Highlights of the first week are aired on the middle Sunday on ABC. Same-day replays of the ladies' and gentlemen's singles finals are aired on ABC.

US Open

  • ESPN and Tennis Channel have contracts through 2025. DirecTV also provides coverage. Coverage is as follows:
    • Qualifying: ESPN2
    • Days 1-7: ESPN2, ESPN3, Tennis Channel and DirecTV
    • Day 8-11: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and Tennis Channel
    • Day 12 including the men's doubles final: ESPN
    • Day 13 including the women's singles final: ESPN
    • Day 14 women's doubles final: ESPN2, men's singles final: ESPN
    • Same-day replays are aired on Tennis Channel throughout the tournament.

ATP World Tour Finals

  • ESPN2, ESPN3 and Tennis Channel

ATP World Tour Masters 1000

  • ESPN2, ESPN3 and Tennis Channel

ATP World Tour 500

  • ESPN3 and Tennis Channel

ATP World Tour 250

  • Tennis Channel

WTA Tour

  • ESPN2, ESPN3 and Tennis Channel

WTA Tour Championships

  • ESPN2 (final only), Tennis Channel and ESPN3

Davis Cup

  • Tennis Channel

Fed Cup

  • Tennis Channel

US Open Series

  • ESPN2, ESPN3 and Tennis Channel

World TeamTennis

  • ESPN2 (final only) and ESPN3

Track & Field (Athletics)

Winter Sports

Miscellaneous

References

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