ACC and The CW reach sublicense agreement thru 2030-31
The CW Network and ESPN Reach Sublicense Broadcast Agreement for ACC Football and Basketball Games Through 2030-31 Season
Network Reinforces Commitment to College Sports and Continues Relationship with ACC by Bringing 54 Games Per Season to a National Audience
All Games Available to Watch Live on The CW Linear and, for the First Time, Stream on the ESPN App
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BURBANK, Calif. and CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The CW Network and ESPN today announced a new sublicense broadcast agreement for The CW to televise ACC football and men’s and women’s college basketball games through the 2030-31 season. As part of this long-term relationship, The CW will air 14 regular season football games, 30 men’s basketball games, and 10 women’s basketball games each season. All games will be available to watch nationwide live on The CW’s linear broadcast network, and for the first time, stream live on the ESPN App with the ESPN Unlimited plan.
Link:
ACC Release
30 Replies
2mo
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
2mo
I'm so very, very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith—as there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos, it will be a home run, and so that'll make it a 4–0 ballgame. I don't know if I'm gonna be putting on this headset again"
classic
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
2mo
Check out SEC shorts for context
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
2mo
The SEC and BIG are getting lots of spots on main networks. This ACC deal just makes it easier to push mid level ACC games onto a secondary network (with not great video quality). ESPN is just offloading some low quality content and making some money. It doesn’t help the ACC and it won’t help the viewership for schools.
To put it another way, games are available to watch in tiers.
Top tier is the main networks (CBC, FOX, ESPN, NBC, ABC)
Second tier is for national games that are not quite worth the main networks (ESPN2, FS1, etc.)
Third tier is more for filler type games but still on tv and occasional decent team that is on because of a low quality matchup and to full contracts commitments (ACCN, SECN, CW, regional channels, etc.)
Fourth tier is online only for the bad teams and games (espn+, etc.)
** Edited by HokieAl at 5/13/2026, 5:35:59 PM
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
2mo
be really lean. The ACC went all in with the same networks, so the second fiddle position was etched in stone.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
(In response to this post by reestuart)
2mo
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
This is for P5 teams from 2015-2025 regular season games (conference and OOC) where we have publicly known viewership information.
(In response to this post by RandomAsianGuy)
2mo
in 2023 or something?
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
I can combine any selection of years, weeks, schools, etc.
I have combined a ton of data that is not available anywhere else. If you give me the criteria that you want to see, I can pull the data in a few minutes (when I’m home on my computer).
(In response to this post by RandomAsianGuy)
2mo
Average viewership across just the secondary channels, shown by school on each channel.
Average viewership vs P5/G5 teams, by channel (main and secondary channels).
Average viewership by school across all channels.
All numbers are for just the regular season games. I filtered out the bowls, playoffs, and conference championships.
(In response to this post by RandomAsianGuy)
2mo
reason VT's number was better on the CW.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
Which is where the CW games would end up. Even if the games ended up on the ACCNet, the ACC Network is not rated by Neilsen, so there would be no viewership numbers for that.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
Being on the ACCN means you're basically invisible.
(In response to this post by mrcaniac)
2mo
Not where you want your content. ANY linear channel is better IMO.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
2mo
This is average viewership across all P5 teams from 2015-2025 regular season games (conference and OOC) where we have publicly known viewership information.
5,130 for ABC OOC games is equal to an average of 5.1 million viewers.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
Same filters as above, just narrowed for only ACC teams.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
does it? and what content did they even have when they existed? same question for USA; I can't even remember games ever being on USA. Are those network numbers (avg viewership) skewed by an extremely small sample size?
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
2mo
The view I’m showing is an average view of all regular season games that have publicly known viewership information.
So yes, NBC-SN is old. And it might have only had one game, or five games. But to be consistent, their average is shown the same as ESPN-2, which might have 500 games.
I would have to look at my data when I get home to tell you the specifics for number of games, what years, and what teams played (but I do have all of that data).
(In response to this post by GusDaMan)
2mo
These are the games after ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and the ACCNetwork have all passed on them. The CW is available in close to 60 million households more than ESPN. It will most definitely help with schools' viewership. ESPN has about 60 million household subscribers with about 20 million ESPN+ subscribers, being generous with over lap, that would give them about 75 million households. The CW is available in about 98% of the US's 130 million TV households.
As for streaming the CW games, come this fall the CW will be part of ESPN Unlimited, so now the games will be available online too.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
E
EDGEMAN
2mo
That's far from terrible! I like the CW's broadcasts.
(In response to this post by mrcaniac)
2mo
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
S
SMU Pony
2mo
I thought that when the CW package went back to market in 2027 the ACC had an opportunity to pick up some additional revenue. Wonder if that is actually the case with this renewal.
(In response to this post by RandomAsianGuy)
T
Truthahn
2mo
They already own the contract for those games, so only ESPN can sell them to the CW, and only they can profit. Still, I would not be surprised if the ACC gets some small boost every time ESPN makes an arrangement like this. I wish articles like this would tell us.
** Edited by Truthahn at 5/14/2026, 1:15:12 PM
(In response to this post by SMU Pony)
2mo
big difference between them. A private equity is legally able to collect from the conference and schools the balance owed (plus interest) on the amount of the investment. So far, I have not read anything that suggests ESPN has ever tried to collect any remaining balance on its "investment" when the media contract is set to expire. Now it may beg the question how much of an "investment" does ESPN really make in any of media contracts.
There may even be differences on when the money changes hand. The private equity may give some/all of the money in advance which would make it a "loan." While ESPN may wait until the end of the fiscal year (June 30) for "services rendered." It may help explain why people view the private equity as operating with more of a loan shark mentality and don't view the networks in the same light.
(In response to this post by Truthahn)