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2023 American TV series or program From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CW Football Saturday is a presentation of college football on The CW produced by Pac-12 Enterprises, Raycom Sports, and CW Sports.
| CW Football Saturday | |
|---|---|
| |
| Also known as | CW Football Saturday, ACC on The CW |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends (inc. adverts) |
| Production companies | CW Sports Raycom Sports (ACC) Pac-12 Enterprises (Pac-12) |
| Original release | |
| Network | The CW |
| Release | September 9, 2023 – present |
| Related | |
| ACC on Regional Sports Networks | |
The CW began carrying college football broadcasts on September 9, 2023, with a package of Atlantic Coast Conference games sub-licensed from and produced by Raycom Sports (billed as the ACC on The CW), as well as coverage of the Arizona Bowl sub-licensed from Barstool Sports. In 2024, CW Sports reached an agreement with the Pac-12—which, due to realignment, had been reduced to two teams—to broadcast most Oregon State University and Washington State University home games during the 2024 season. CW Sports also subcontracted the conference to produce studio programming for its college football coverage.
After Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW, the company began efforts to broaden the network's demographic reach to encompass older viewers within the key demographic and linear television viewership, citing preferences towards streaming platforms by younger viewers. This would include an increased focus on imported programs from other countries, and sports programming. The network began to establish a sports division in 2023, initially with the acquisition of U.S. rights to the LIV Golf League.[1]
Raycom Sports has had a long-standing relationship with the Atlantic Coast Conference, having syndicated ACC basketball games, and later football, since 1982. Raycom maintained the rights to this package after ESPN acquired the conference's media rights in 2010. The broadcast television package ended after the 2018–19 season, when ESPN acquired its inventory for its new ACC Network cable channel.[2][3][4]
As an aspect of this agreement, Raycom also held rights to syndicate a separate package of ACC telecasts to regional sports networks. In June 2023, Bally Sports—the package's primary rightsholder—announced that it would drop the ACC RSN package, amid the bankruptcy of parent company Diamond Sports Group.[5] The following month, Raycom announced that it had sold the package to The CW, consisting of 13 football games, 28 men's basketball games, and 9 women's basketball games per-season.[6][7] The CW aired its first ACC football broadcast on September 9, 2023, featuring Cincinnati at Pittsburgh.[8]
On November 30, 2023, The CW reached an agreement with Barstool Sports to simulcast its coverage of the Arizona Bowl, which was previously exclusive to Barstool’s social media platforms since 2021.[9]
On March 26, 2024, it was reported by sports columnist John Canzano that CW Sports was nearing an agreement with the Pac-12 Conference—whose membership had been reduced to Oregon State and Washington State as a result of realignment—to televise the two teams' home games during the 2024 season.[10] The deal was officially announced on May 14, under which The CW will air 11 broadcasts between the two teams (the remaining two will be aired by Fox College Football).[11][12]
As part of the expansion, The CW also rebranded its coverage as CW Football Saturday, adding a new pre-game show hosted by Mike Yam, and former Fox Sports personality Thom Brennaman as lead commentator for ACC games and selected Pac-12 games. The Pac-12 games, as well as the new studio show, are being produced by the Pac-12's in-house media department Pac-12 Enterprises (which consists of the remainder of Pac-12 Network's staff).[11][12] On May 29, 2024, with Barstool ending its title sponsorship and broadcast rights to the bowl after 2023, CW Sports acquired rights to the 2024 Arizona Bowl.[13]
With the limited turnaround time between the announcement and the start of the 2023 ACC football season, Raycom and The CW subcontracted resources from other broadcasters for its initial season of college football broadcasts, including ESPN (the conference's main rightsholder) temporarily allowing use of the ESPN College Football on-air graphics (pending the development of a dedicated CW Sports graphics package in time for basketball season), and its first game at Pitt sharing resources with Fox Sports (which was already at Acrisure Stadium for an NFL broadcast the following afternoon).[14] Notably, the games are not available on streaming-specific services like The CW app but are available through streaming TV providers.[15]
For the 2024 season, the production was rebranded as CW Football Saturday with a dedicated on-air presentation; Raycom continues to produce the ACC games under the new banner, while the Pac-12 portion of the package, as well as studio coverage, is produced from the new Pac-12 Studios in San Ramon, California (which had opened as a new facility for Pac-12 Network the previous season).[16][17] Sister cable network NewsNation began to also be used as an overflow during doubleheaders.[18]
The TCU Horned Frogs' Iron Skillet rivalry game against the SMU Mustangs was televised as part of the CW's ACC package in 2024; the team promoted the game via a video satirizing ESPN's "This is SportsCenter" commercials entitled "one treefroghill" (referencing former CW series One Tree Hill), seemingly dissing the network by saying that the game was "unfortunately" on The CW. When SMU beat TCU in the game (its first victory in the rivalry since 2021), the ACC's X account quipped "'Thank goodness it was only on The CW' – TCU fans, probably."[19][20][21]
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