Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery have reached a new carriage deal that may or may not include lower fees for TNT. Plus, former ESPN NFL analyst Robert Griffin III is reportedly joining the Netflix Christmas Day NFL studio; the Army-Navy Game is staying put on CBS through the latter part of the next decade; ESPN has set the announce teams for TNT’s College Football Playoff games.
Comcast, WBD, strike first carriage agreement since NBA deal
Comcast has reached a multi-year carriage agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery that will keep TNT, TBS, CNN, HBO and additional WBD cable networks on the Xfinity cable platform, it was announced Monday. In addition, Comcast has obtained the right to distribute the Max and Discovery+ streaming services via its streaming bundles.
The deal had been closely watched, as Comcast this year acquired the NBA media rights package that had been held by WBD — a move widely seen as at least somewhat strategic, as the loss of NBA rights was expected to reduce the amount WBD could charge for TNT. Sources cited by Variety differ as to the amount Comcast is paying under the deal, with one saying that the company is paying less for TNT and another saying that there is no change.
Ex-ESPNer Robert Griffin III expected to join Netflix NFL studio
Former ESPN NFL analyst Robert Griffin III is expected to join Netflix for studio coverage of the streamer’s upcoming Christmas Day NFL doubleheader, according to Front Office Sports. Griffin served as a pro and college football analyst for ESPN before being let go in August of this year.
Griffin will join former NBC analyst Drew Brees and NFL Network analyst Manti Te’o, along with (as has been previously reported) ESPN analyst Mina Kimes and host Kay Adams for the streamer’s first NFL event.
For game coverage, CBS voice Ian Eagle will join CBS studio analysts Nate Burleson and J.J. Watt to call Chiefs-Steelers at 1 PM, followed by NBC’s Noah Eagle and Fox analyst Greg Olsen for Ravens-Texans at 4:30.
CBS to continue airing Army-Navy through ’38
CBS Sports announced Monday that it has reached a ten-year media rights extension with the U.S. Military and Naval Academies to continue carrying the annual Army-Navy Game through 2038. The network’s deal for the game was to expire in 2028. Financial terms were not announced.
Army-Navy has aired on CBS since 1996 and by the end of the deal will have done so for 43 consecutive seasons.
Since moving to the week after college football’s conference championship games in 2009, Army-Navy has been one of the most-watched games of any given season, owing primarily to a lack of competing matchups.
Now that CBS no longer has the SEC, Army-Navy may well be the biggest draw the network has in a given season. If this year’s matchup averages the same number of viewers as last year (7.18M), it will top the current CBS season-high of 6.32 million for Michigan-USC.
ESPN sets broadcast teams for TNT CFP games
ESPN announced Sunday that the College Football Playoff games on TNT — SMU-Penn State and Clemson-Texas — will be called by the ESPN broadcast teams of Mark Jones, Roddy Jones and Quint Kessenich and Dave Pasch, Dusty Dvoracek and Taylor McGregor, respectively.
From the time the ESPN-TNT CFP sublicensing agreement was announced earlier this year, it was known that ESPN would produce the games and assign its announcers to the broadcasts.
ESPN’s top two college football broadcast teams — Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe and Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath, will call the two games simulcast on ESPN and ABC.
Ben Huddleston contributed reporting to this article.
