TNT Sports is adding College Football Playoff games starting this season as part of a five-year sub-licensing agreement with ESPN, according to executives briefed on the discussions.
The deal will see Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports and HBO Max show two first-round games over the first two seasons of the contract. In the ensuing three years, it will broadcast and stream two first-round games and two quarterfinals. The sides could add more games.
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While TNT’s future partnership with the NBA is in doubt, the move for CFP games is unrelated to those current tenuous negotiations, according to executives briefed on the talks. The CFP agreement would have happened regardless of where the talks with the NBA stood.
ESPN, the home of the national championship, retains the rest of the rights to the newly expanded 12-team CFP with its six-year, $7.8 billion agreement.
The full financial terms of the agreement between TNT and ESPN are not yet known, but during its negotiations with the CFP, Disney-owned ESPN had put a $25 million average value on each first-round game.
The TNT games will be produced by ESPN and use ESPN broadcasters, but be branded TNT Sports, according to a source with direct knowledge of their plans. TNT could produce ancillary programming around the games, which could include a new show like, “Inside the College Football Playoff.” ESPN will get to choose the first two first-round games before TNT gets to make its selection.
ESPN, WBD Sports and Fox are teaming up for a stand-alone streaming product, named Venu, which will be available to consumers this fall and, according to executives briefed on the plans, will be priced in the $45-$50 per month range.
By working with Warner Bros. Discovery, ESPN is able to keep the entire playoff under the Venu umbrella.
As for the NBA, it has framework agreements with ESPN for $2.6 billion a year, Amazon Prime Video for $1.8 billion per season and is closing in on a deal with NBC Sports. TNT Sports, home of the beloved “Inside The NBA,” remains in talks with the league to continue its nearly four-decade relationship. No final resolutions have been reached.
While the NBA is in deep, detailed discussions with NBC, there is still a question about matching rights in which TNT could try to go after Amazon’s or NBC’s contracts. This could lead to a legal battle. The NBA prefers having three partners in its next deal instead of four.
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However the NBA talks finish, TNT Sports chairman Luis Silberwasser continues to add to its rights. Besides the existing agreements with the NBA, MLB, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the NHL, Silbwasser has done deals with U.S. men’s and women’s soccer, NASCAR and, now, the CFP.
Like the NCAA Tournament, which TNT partners with CBS for, TNT does not have regular-season college football games.
(Photo: Michael Wade / Getty Images)
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Andrew Marchand is a Sr. Sports Media Columnist for The Athletic. He previously worked for the New York Post and ESPN, where he predominantly covered sports media and baseball. In 2023, Marchand was named one of five finalists for The Big Lead’s “Insider of the Year” in all of sports.
