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You can find your local CW station: https://www.cwtv.com/thecw/stations/
College football has a new broadcaster this season. The CW will debut its package of ACC games on Saturday with Cincinnati vs. Pitt.
The CW, long known for teen dramas, has recently jumped into sports with deals featuring Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf, NASCAR’s Xfinity Series and the “Inside The NFL” studio show. As part of this ACC deal, the network will air 13 college football games this year, along with 28 men’s basketball games and nine women’s basketball games during the winter, including basketball doubleheaders. The only other CW football game announced is NC State vs. VMI on Sept. 16. The deal runs through 2026-27.
Raycom Sports, which sublicenses from ESPN and has broadcast ACC games since 1980, will produce the games for The CW, just as it previously did for the Bally’s Sports regional networks, Bally’s dropped the ACC games in June amid company financial issues. Tom Werme and James Bates will be on the call this Saturday.
The good news for fans: These games will be available to more people than ever. The CW is a broadcast network, meaning it’s available in 100 percent of U.S. households just like ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. You can get The CW with a simple antenna.
The CW’s availability to specific streaming TV services like YouTube TV or Hulu includes most but not all markets, so you’ll want to check. (You can find your local CW station here.) The games will not be on streaming-specific services like The CW app or WatchESPN, but they will be available online through streaming TV providers like YouTube TV that carry The CW. (Note: In Chicago, the games will be on WGN, rather than the CW affiliate.)
Ahead of The CW’s college football debut, The Athletic spoke with CW Network president Dennis Miller about the plans and what fans can expect.
(Note: Conversation has been edited for clarity and length.)
To start simply, why has The CW gotten into sports? I was a big fan of Smallville and Arrow back in the day and remember watching those kinds of shows.
Looking at the landscape for some time now, that young adult programming when it started was a good alternative to what other folks were doing. But ultimately, that young adult audience shifted over to watching video gaming, TikTok, and streamers, not broadcast prime time. Looking at how well local sports had done, it became apparent there was an opportunity. The final piece was the RSN’s (regional sports networks) started to have financial troubles. We saw them implode and it was a perfect storm of opportunity to see if we could compete effectively.
How did this ACC deal come together?
(Nexstar networks president) Sean Compton was very friendly with Hunter Nickel and George (Johnson) over at Raycom. Gray Television (Raycom’s parent company) had been one of the larger CW affiliate stakeholders. We knew they had ACC games with ESPN. It became clear there may be a package available. Once we realized we could get this done for this fall, everybody moved quickly to pick up the football and men’s and women’s basketball games. We had time periods on the weekend because those have largely been paid programming. There was availability to get 1-6 on Saturdays and Sundays from all CW affiliates. We had conversations with them and advertisers who said yes, yes, yes. So we moved quickly to secure it.
So Raycom is still producing all of these games? You guys are just broadcasting them.
Correct. We’re working closely with them. We’ve added a few additional people to the mix. This is new territory for us, but we’re playing with people who are very sophisticated about this. We’re full steam ahead.
Raycom has a very long history with the ACC. How much did that solidify your decision to go for this?
It was a very significant part. They’ve been producing a large variety of sports and have relationships with the teams, athletic directors and the commissioner. That history and relationship went a long way.
What is the goal here for the network in broadcasting college football? What are you hoping to get out of it?
We’re going to learn a lot. We hope we have a significant impact on the overall ratings of the stations in which these games are aired. We think it’s going to drive a lot of local value for the stations. We’d like to be seen as a Big Five competitor with the other four networks out there, that we’re delivering a product of similar value and scale. It’s part of a longer process of taking The CW seriously, wanting to build something valuable for broadcasters. We’re in the midst of conversations with other leagues and IP holders about sports because we think there’s a lot more we can do.
theathletic.com
College football has a new broadcaster this season. The CW will debut its package of ACC games on Saturday with Cincinnati vs. Pitt.
The CW, long known for teen dramas, has recently jumped into sports with deals featuring Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf, NASCAR’s Xfinity Series and the “Inside The NFL” studio show. As part of this ACC deal, the network will air 13 college football games this year, along with 28 men’s basketball games and nine women’s basketball games during the winter, including basketball doubleheaders. The only other CW football game announced is NC State vs. VMI on Sept. 16. The deal runs through 2026-27.
Raycom Sports, which sublicenses from ESPN and has broadcast ACC games since 1980, will produce the games for The CW, just as it previously did for the Bally’s Sports regional networks, Bally’s dropped the ACC games in June amid company financial issues. Tom Werme and James Bates will be on the call this Saturday.
The good news for fans: These games will be available to more people than ever. The CW is a broadcast network, meaning it’s available in 100 percent of U.S. households just like ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. You can get The CW with a simple antenna.
The CW’s availability to specific streaming TV services like YouTube TV or Hulu includes most but not all markets, so you’ll want to check. (You can find your local CW station here.) The games will not be on streaming-specific services like The CW app or WatchESPN, but they will be available online through streaming TV providers like YouTube TV that carry The CW. (Note: In Chicago, the games will be on WGN, rather than the CW affiliate.)
Ahead of The CW’s college football debut, The Athletic spoke with CW Network president Dennis Miller about the plans and what fans can expect.
(Note: Conversation has been edited for clarity and length.)
To start simply, why has The CW gotten into sports? I was a big fan of Smallville and Arrow back in the day and remember watching those kinds of shows.
Looking at the landscape for some time now, that young adult programming when it started was a good alternative to what other folks were doing. But ultimately, that young adult audience shifted over to watching video gaming, TikTok, and streamers, not broadcast prime time. Looking at how well local sports had done, it became apparent there was an opportunity. The final piece was the RSN’s (regional sports networks) started to have financial troubles. We saw them implode and it was a perfect storm of opportunity to see if we could compete effectively.
How did this ACC deal come together?
(Nexstar networks president) Sean Compton was very friendly with Hunter Nickel and George (Johnson) over at Raycom. Gray Television (Raycom’s parent company) had been one of the larger CW affiliate stakeholders. We knew they had ACC games with ESPN. It became clear there may be a package available. Once we realized we could get this done for this fall, everybody moved quickly to pick up the football and men’s and women’s basketball games. We had time periods on the weekend because those have largely been paid programming. There was availability to get 1-6 on Saturdays and Sundays from all CW affiliates. We had conversations with them and advertisers who said yes, yes, yes. So we moved quickly to secure it.
So Raycom is still producing all of these games? You guys are just broadcasting them.
Correct. We’re working closely with them. We’ve added a few additional people to the mix. This is new territory for us, but we’re playing with people who are very sophisticated about this. We’re full steam ahead.
Raycom has a very long history with the ACC. How much did that solidify your decision to go for this?
It was a very significant part. They’ve been producing a large variety of sports and have relationships with the teams, athletic directors and the commissioner. That history and relationship went a long way.
What is the goal here for the network in broadcasting college football? What are you hoping to get out of it?
We’re going to learn a lot. We hope we have a significant impact on the overall ratings of the stations in which these games are aired. We think it’s going to drive a lot of local value for the stations. We’d like to be seen as a Big Five competitor with the other four networks out there, that we’re delivering a product of similar value and scale. It’s part of a longer process of taking The CW seriously, wanting to build something valuable for broadcasters. We’re in the midst of conversations with other leagues and IP holders about sports because we think there’s a lot more we can do.
How will college football broadcasts on The CW work? Q&A with network president Dennis Miller
As part of a deal with the ACC, The CW will air 13 college football games this year.
theathletic.com
