[6] MLB earns $1.5 billion annually from its contracts signed in 2012 with ESPN, Fox, and Turner Sports (TBS) for the 2014 through 2021 seasons.
[7] In 2014, the NBA signed a nine-year television deal with ABC/ESPN and TNT that generates annual league television revenues of $2.66 billion beginning with the 2016–17 season,[8] while the NHL earns $625 million annually from seven-year contracts signed in 2021 with ESPN and Turner Sports to last until the 2027–28 season.
[9][10] Since the 1960s, all regular season and playoff games broadcast in the United States have been aired by national television networks.
[14] Westwood One has exclusive national radio rights through an unspecified multi-year period starting in the 2022 season.
Post-season bowl games, including the College Football Playoff, are presently all televised, most of them by the ESPN networks.
[27] The television broadcast rights to all six CFP bowls and the National Championship are owned by ESPN through at least the 2025 season.
[29] Regular-season Post-season Radio Since 2023, CBS Sports Network holds the television rights to 34 games from the CFL.
[58] The new incarnation of the XFL divided its broadcast rights between ESPN on ABC/ESPN and Fox Sports under a three-year deal.
The Wall Street Journal reported via inside sources that neither the broadcasters or the league made any upfront payments, but that the XFL sold the in-game sponsorship inventory.
However, during the bankruptcy process, Fox expressed interest in broadcasting games if new owners could revive the league.
NBC Sports, who had shared media rights with Fox for the USFL, dropped their involvement due to schedule conflicts.
National television On August 28, 2012, it was announced that ESPN and Major League Baseball had agreed on a new eight-year deal that greatly increases the network's studio and game content across all of its platforms.
Sources also said that was possible that Fox would sell some Division Series games to MLB Network, which did end up occurring.
The contract also adds expanded digital rights for Bleacher Report and "additional WarnerMedia platforms".
[79] On April 9, 2022, NBC Sports announced an agreement with MLB for a package of new Sunday afternoon games starting from 2022 season; those matches are broadcast exclusively on Peacock.
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.
[87] On July 24, 2024, the NBA announced new 11-year agreements with ESPN/ABC, NBC Sports, and Amazon Prime Video that will last from the 2025–26 to 2035–36 seasons.
These broadcasters can be traditional over-the-air television stations as well as regional cable sports channels or streaming services.
WGN-TV, then a Chicago-based superstation, broadcast a limited number of Chicago Bulls regular season games on WGN America until 2014, fewer than they provided locally.
[94][95] Postseason Regular season Nationally televised regular-season games are contracted through each conference and air as follows: More than 300 hours of live curling, broadcast by TSN in Canada, will be live-streamed on ESPN3, including: Exclusive rights for coverage of most events (shared coverage of the Scottish Open with ESPN+ and CBS) As of the 2021–22 NHL season, the national media rights of the National Hockey League (NHL) are divided between ESPN and TNT Sports under seven-year contracts;[123][124][125] Local or regional broadcasters contract with the NHL team in their area for the right to broadcast several regular-season games locally.
[132] In 2019, the league signed with Twitch to stream games and ancillary content, in its first contract to ever include a rights fee.
Regular season games air locally, often via regional sports networks (such as Bally Sports) and networks contracted with conferences, these conferences include: NBC holds the rights to two of three races in the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby through 2025,[135] and the Preakness Stakes through 2022,[136] USA Network, CNBC or Peacock provides supplementary coverage, including previews and associated undercard races on Fridays preceding the Saturday races (including the Kentucky Oaks and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes).
TNT will show the remaining five Cup races in the late summer, which will also be streamed on the Bleacher Report Sports Add-On on Max.
It was also announced that Fox Sports would continue its arrangement with the Truck series from the previous media deal.
[155] March 1 of that year they announced the launch of their own Over-the-top media service called F1 TV Pro what show races live and on-demand.
Other national competitions NBC Sports has rights to the following events with coverage varying on NBC and USA Network Australian Open French Open The Championships, Wimbledon U.S. Open ATP Finals ATP Tour Masters 1000 ATP Tour 500 ATP Tour 250 WTA Finals WTA 1000 tournaments WTA 500 tournaments WTA 250 tournaments Davis Cup Billie Jean King Cup US Open Series Laver Cup World TeamTennis Tie Break Tens NBCUniversal holds rights to the following:[198][199]