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CBS Sports, WNBA Announce New Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement

“As the league continues to build momentum, this is a great opportunity to expand our broadcast presence and further lean into our commitment to providing a national platform for women’s sports.”

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CBS Sports WNBA
Courtesy: Paramount Global

CBS Sports and the WNBA have announced a multi-year agreement that will feature the largest slate of games broadcast by the network. As part of the deal, CBS Sports will be presenting eight regular-season games per year on the CBS Television Network starting with the 2024 season. The network’s first game of the year, a matchup between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, will be broadcast on Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m. EST on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+. Moreover, an additional 12 games will be televised on CBS Sports Network over the duration of the deal. CBS Sports Network will begin its live game broadcasts on the same day, Saturday, May 25, when the Connecticut Sun play the Chicago Sky at 8 p.m. EST.

“We’re thrilled to extend our strong partnership with the WNBA,” Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming of CBS Sports, said in a statement. “As the league continues to build momentum, this is a great opportunity to expand our broadcast presence and further lean into our commitment to providing a national platform for women’s sports.”

The new media rights agreement extends the five-year partnership between CBS Sports and the WNBA, which first came to terms on a multi-year deal with CBS Sports in 2019. The WNBA will feature several returning All-Stars and young phenoms throughout the year, such as Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson. Combined viewership across the CBS Television Network and Disney-owned networks (ABC, ESPN) was up 8% over the 2022 season and averaged 505,000 viewers.

CBS Sports announced its full schedule of WNBA broadcasts as well, which includes a CBS doubleheader on Saturday, Aug. 17. The first game scheduled is a matchup between the Minnesota Lynx and Washington Mystics at 2 p.m. EST. Afterwards, the second game on the schedule features a rematch of the WNBA Finals when the New York Liberty visit the Las Vegas Aces. The Indiana Fever are featured three times on CBS and CBS Sports Network this season and are expected to select standout Iowa guard and NCAA all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark with the first-overall pick in next week’s WNBA Draft.

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Sports TV News

Josina Anderson Parting Ways with CBS

“I’m amicably moving on to future ventures. I wish all of the talented insiders, anchors, reporters, producers, executives and support staff the best.”

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Josina Anderson
Courtesy: Miikka Skaffari, Getty Images

CBS Senior NFL insider Josina Anderson announced via her X account she has decided to move on from CBS.

“I want to thank the CBS Sports team for my experience and time there,” she wrote. “I’m amicably moving on to future ventures. I wish all of the talented insiders, anchors, reporters, producers, executives and support staff the best.”

Anderson, 45, started at CBS Sports HQ in September 2021. She had parted ways with ESPN in June 2020 after nine years with the network. At ESPN, she was part of the National ESPN Insider team which at the time consisted of Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen, John Clayton, Ed Werder, Adam Caplan and Field Yates.

No word yet on what Anderson has planned for the future. BSM will keep you posed as soon as more information becomes available.

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NFL Draft Ratings Fall After Strong First Round

ABC was slightly down, but ESPN2’s number is a 15% drop from last year while NFL Network saw a 20% decline.

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Logo for the 2024 NFL Draft

Despite a strong start on Thursday, the second night of the NFL Draft saw a decline in viewership, reaching its lowest Friday audience since 2012 with an average of only 5.1 million viewers. ABC led the way bringing in 2.69 million viewers, followed by ESPN2 at 1.57 million and NFL Network with 793,000. ESPN Deportes adds in another 14,000 for a total that was 9% less than the year before.

ESPN had previously aired part of Day 2 before shifting over to ESPN2, however this year the second day was solely on ESPN2. ESPN carried Game 3 of the NBA playoff series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers. According to Jon Lewis from Sports Media Watch, ABC was slightly down, but ESPN2’s number is a 15% drop from last year while NFL Network saw a 20% decline. Lewis notes the NFL Network number for Friday’s draft coverage was their lowest since 2011.

On Thursday, night one of the NFL Draft had its best viewing audience in three years. According to numbers posted by Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp, ESPN had 5.6 million viewers, while ABC had 4.5 million and the NFL Network and other digital streaming had 1.6 million. Add those numbers to what ESPN Deportes did and it comes out to around 12.1 million. The NFL and Nielsen said that 34.3 million viewers tuned in at some point to watch the first round.

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Report: NBC Could Steal NBA Rights from TNT to the Tune of Around $2.5 Billion Per Year

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A report from the Wall Street Journal says NBC is making an offer around $2.5 billion per year to obtain part of the NBA media rights package. Joel Flint, Amol Sharma and Isabella Simonetti all contributed to the story which says Warner Bros. Discovery is making a “last-ditch effort” for TNT to continue as an NBA partner.

The TNT portion of the current agreement, which expires after next season, is an average of $1.2 billion. ESPN had been paying $1.5 billion and that is expected to increase over $1 billion annually.

Last week, reports surfaced from Puck’s John Ourand that ESPN was nearing completion of their portion of the package and that it would include the NBA Finals staying on ABC. All indications had been there would be more than two partners in the next deal and that it would include a streaming network. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic also reported last week that Amazon Prime Video and the league “have the framework of a deal” and that it would include “significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even conference finals.”

The WSJ report says NBC’s discussions with the NBA have been about carrying two prime-time games a week. This is important as WBD has matching rights in their current agreement. However, they do not own a broadcast network and therefore could not offer something similar to NBC.

Multiple reports have said any new agreements will be for a period of ten years.

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