ESPN is picking up more content for its direct-to-subscriber service, striking a deal to add CW Sports programming to ESPN Unlimited.
ESPN and Nexstar announced a deal Wednesday that will make ESPN Unlimited the exclusive streaming home of sporting events on CW starting this summer. CW, which owns rights to an eclectic mix of sporting events, has not previously had a dedicated streaming platform for its sporting events.
With the addition of CW, ESPN Unlimited will now include additional college football and basketball games and — for the first time on any ESPN platform since 2014 — NASCAR, albeit the secondary O’Reilly Auto Parts (formerly Xfinity) Series.
While CW is an over-the-air broadcast network, it has only been carrying sports programming for four years and has never had a particularly high profile among sports fans. It may be the case that at least some portion of the audience is more likely to come across CW content while paying $30/mo for the ESPN app than for free via an antenna.
The deal is just the latest infusion of content for the ESPN Unlimited service, which last month became the primary home of the MLB.tv digital out-of-market package and later this year will include Disney-owned NFL Network. It also owns the digital in-market streaming rights to MLB teams whose games are produced and distributed by the league (though that was not exercised for this season) and is the exclusive home of WWE premium live events, which ESPN now promotes heavily on its linear platforms.
The ESPN app was already the exclusive home of the NHL out-of-market package, plus thousands of college sporting events, via ESPN+ — which is also part of ESPN Unlimited, but remains available separately as a lower-cost “ESPN Select” subscription.
Add to that the various bundles that pair ESPN Unlimited with a competing app — such as Fox One — for a discounted rate, and it is now possible to consume a wide variety of third-party content through ESPN platforms. And that is not even getting into the company’s recent licensing agreements for content like the TNT-produced “Inside the NBA.”
It is unlikely the CW agreement will be the last of its kind. Sporting events on USA Network, CNBC and Golf Channel — which were spun off from Comcast into the new venture Versant — no longer have a dedicated streaming option after being severed from NBCUniversal and its streamer Peacock. While some events still stream on Peacock as part of existing rights deals, others are only available to stream online or via authentication through the bundle.
