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With Skydance saddled with nearly $80 billion in debt, there’s some speculation it will shed some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s live sports rights to cut costs. If that happens, count the CW Network among those opportunistically waiting in the wings.
Over the past three years, the Nexstar-owned network has made a strong move into live sports, picking up properties ranging from the ACC, Pac-12, and Mountain West in college football to NASCAR, WWE NXT, and Professional Bull Riders.
Front Office Sports recently spoke with Michael Perman, the CW’s senior vice president of sports. He confirmed the CW is eyeing live sports rights currently controlled by WBD’s TNT Sports, as well as other pro leagues and college conferences.
TNT’s seven-year, $1.575 billion rights deal with the NHL, worth $225 million annually for regular-season and playoff games, expires after the 2027–28 season. The network’s seven-year, $3.75 billion deal with Major League Baseball, worth $535 million per season, expires after the 2028 campaign. Perman also pointed to the French Open, which has been a big hit for TNT. Back in 2024, TNT agreed to a 10-year, $650 million deal to serve as the new home of the French Open in the U.S.
Outside of Skydance’s holdings, Perman noted Major League Soccer’s 10-year, $2.5 billion global streaming deal with Apple is ending after the 2028–29 season. At FOS’s recent Tuned In summit, outgoing MLS commissioner Don Garber told FOS editor-in-chief Dan Roberts that his league should be viewed as a “Big 5” player along with the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL.
“Sure, they definitely have some properties that are interesting. They have the French Open. Their NHL rights are up in a couple of years, which is something we’re taking a look at,” says Perman about TNT Sports’s rights.
“So it’s not just Skydance or what they have. There’s other things that are out there. MLS will be up in a little bit as well. It’s partially Skydance. But it’s partially just where the marketplace is. And sports that are growing, or who have been with incumbents for a while, who maybe are looking to make a switch and try something a little different. I think what’s good about us is we’re very strategic in what we’re doing. The properties we have, what they like about being with us is they’re not one of many. We’re strategic about what we have. We take care of the properties. We grow their brands. And we promote.”
Then there’s ESPN and the College Football Playoff. TNT’s now in the third year of a five-season deal to sublicense five CFP games from ESPN. If the tourney expands to 24 teams as expected, the CW wants more games.
Getting more CFP rights makes sense because the CW’s business relationship with ESPN keeps growing. In May, the CW and ESPN announced another sublicensing deal to show ACC football and men’s and women’s college basketball games on its linear network through the 2030–31 season. The games will stream live on the ESPN App with the ESPN Unlimited plan. In short, a 24-team CFP means more potential opportunities for the CW.
“We are interested. Obviously, we have ACC, Mountain West, Pac-12, which we launched in August. So we’re excited about how that’s going,” says Perman. “Yes, the CFP is interesting. There’s a lot of games, it’s a lot of money. Going back to your point about Skydance they have some games—so we’d be interested to see what happens with that. But we’d definitely be interested in doing more, or talking to ESPN, potentially about that. As you know, we have a business relationship with ESPN. They are a streaming home for us. There’s a CW Sports thumbnail on there. We have our own hub, where all of our live sports are on there. That relationship is great. We talk to them all the time. So we’re definitely open to adding more.”
During an era of cord-cutting and cord-shaving, the CW also has another ace up its sleeve. It’s the country’s fifth English-language broadcast network after ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, reaching roughly 100 million U.S. homes.
Most of the speculation about sports rights in recent years has been about the entrance of giant streamers like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. But Perman’s CW can dangle the carrot of wide broadcast distribution to leagues and advertisers looking for the reach of broadcast TV.
“I still think these leagues need linear distribution on a broadcast network,” he notes.
CW executives previously told my colleague Ryan Glasspiegel they want to add more bowl games beyond their current trio of Poinsettia Bowl, Holiday Bowl, and Arizona Bowl. Looking ahead, Perman expects the CW to announce several new partners in the coming months. They’re in the “final stages” of several negotiations that could be finalized shortly, according to Perman. With the CW poised to show more than 130 college basketball games this season, the network is currently hiring more announcers and analysts to fill its on-air needs.
“It really hasn’t been that long since Nexstar took over the CW—and made sports a priority,” says Perman. “We’re excited about the properties that we have–and we’re excited about ones that are potentially out there. We’re talking to everybody.”
As it closed the WBD deal, Skydance launched an executive shake-up, effectively putting TNT Sports under the aegis of David Berson and CBS Sports.
ESPN declined to comment for this story. Skydance could not be reached for comment.
