ESPN and TNT Sports have reached a five-year agreement that will result in TNT Sports sublicensing select College Football Playoff games from ESPN. TNT Sports will broadcast two first-round College Football Playoff games during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, along with an additional two quarterfinal games beginning with the 2026 season and ending in the 2028 campaign. These games will be primarily presented on TNT along with several other distribution platforms under the company’s portfolio. ESPN will present all other College Football Playoff games on its networks, which includes the CFP National Championship Game, in addition to managing the sponsorship program for presenting the College Football Playoff.
“We’re delighted to reach this agreement with ESPN, providing TNT Sports the opportunity to showcase these College Football Playoff games on our platforms for years to come,” Luis Silberwasser, chairman and chief executive officer of TNT Sports, said in a statement. “TNT Sports aims to delight fans and drive maximum reach and engagement for these marquee games.”
Earlier in the year, ESPN and the College Football Playoff agreed to a six-year contract to retain the network as the rightsholder of the event through the 2031-32 season. ESPN has been the broadcast home of the College Football Playoff since 2015 and is set to present the expanded format for the postseason tournament containing 12 teams beginning in the 2024-25 season. The network has expanded its package of games in the final two years of the deal that will include all four of the new first-round games in addition to the quarterfinals, semifinals and CFP National Championship Game.
“ESPN is pleased to sublicense to TNT Sports a select number of early round games of the College Football Playoff, an event we’ve helped to grow – alongside the CFP – into one of the preeminent championships,” Rosalyn Durant, executive vice president of programming and acquisitions at ESPN, said in a statement. “We’re confident in the reach and promotion that this new agreement will provide as we enter the new, expanded playoff era.”
“It is exciting to add TNT Sports, another highly respected broadcaster, to the College Football Playoff family,” Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, said in a statement. “Sports fans across the country are intimately familiar with their work across a wide variety of sports properties over the past two decades, and we look forward to seeing what new and innovative ideas they bring to the promotion and delivery of these games.”
The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery, along with FOX Corporation, are part of the Venu Sports joint streaming venture that is expected to be released this fall. This offering will provide sports fans with a direct-to-consumer outlet wherein they will be able to subscribe and watch marquee sporting events and other programming on networks across the three companies. Pricing and a launch date have yet to be announced for the platform, the latter of which is “conditional on receiving regulatory approval,” according to the home page of the website. Both The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery will also introduce a streaming bundle this summer that implements Disney+, Hulu and Max.
