Launch In August 2022,
Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW network. Nexstar focused on broadening the network's programming, including adding sports. In January 2023, The CW agreed to a three-year broadcast deal with
LIV Golf, the upstart professional golf tour financed by
Saudi Arabia's
Public Investment Fund, marking the first-ever national sports broadcasting contract for the network. Weekday rounds will be available on The CW's streaming apps, while weekend rounds will air on the broadcast network. The announcement led to the launch of the CW Sports division. The network and main owner Nexstar were criticized by the
National Press Club for participating in what it considers an attempt by the Saudi government to rehabilitate its image following the
assassination of journalist
Jamal Khashoggi. On February 14, 2023, the network said its LIV Golf coverage would be carried in 100% of U.S. media markets. However, as existing contracts at the time only obligated CW affiliates to air prime time and
Saturday morning E/I programming, some of them declined to carry LIV coverage. Among the refraining stations were the eight CW stations owned by
CBS News and Stations, ostensibly due to
CBS Sports' longstanding
partnership with the competing
PGA Tour. In many of the affected markets, LIV coverage would air on a Nexstar-owned station, a subchannel carrying a
digital multicast network, or on another station not connected with The CW or Nexstar under a secondary affiliation agreement. The CW declined to renew their rights to LIV Golf beyond the 2024 season, with
Fox Sports becoming the new home for the golf tour. On February 17, 2023, The CW announced it had picked up the rights to
100 Days to Indy, a documentary series following the leadup to the
2023 Indianapolis 500 produced by
Penske Entertainment and
Vice Media. The show moved to the steaming service
Fox Nation in 2025.
Expansion Throughout summer 2023, The CW announced the acquisition of several sports properties. On June 7, The CW announced it acquired the rights to
Inside the NFL, which was previously cable-exclusive to
HBO and then
Showtime, and streamed on
Paramount+, for its 47th season, bringing the series to broadcast television for the first time.
NFL Films continues to produce, with former
Steelers safety
Ryan Clark as the new host, and
Channing Crowder,
Jay Cutler,
Chad Johnson and
Chris Long as analysts. The show was dropped by The CW following
Super Bowl LIX in February 2025. On July 13, it was announced that The CW had acquired the exclusive broadcast rights to 50
Atlantic Coast Conference college football and basketball games each season through 2026–27; the broadcasts would be produced by
Raycom Sports division, who previously produced syndicated ACC broadcasts.
The package had been with
Fox Sports Net before transitioning to
Bally Sports in the 2021 season with the network's ownership transfer. On July 28, 2023, The CW and
NASCAR announced a rights deal for the
NASCAR Xfinity Series, rights previously spread among several cable and broadcast networks. The deal will encompass the 2025–2031 racing seasons. On April 11, 2024, It was announced that the deal was moved up to September 2024, with coverage beginning with the
Food City 300 regular season finale race at
Bristol Motor Speedway, with
NBC Sports producing the broadcasts using its
NASCAR on NBC staff. In January 2024, the division's name was amended to simply "CW Sports" as part of The CW's new brand identity. The rebranding had notably removed the
article "The" from the network's logo and certain use cases (while maintaining "The CW" as its verbal branding); chief marketing officer Chris Spadaccini specifically cited the sports division as a context where "CW" worked better than "The CW". On May 14, 2024, CW Sports announced an agreement to carry 11 football games involving
Oregon State University and
Washington State University, the two remaining members of the
Pac-12 Conference. After simulcasting the 2023 edition as part of an agreement with the game's then-sponsor
Barstool Sports, CW Sports also acquired rights to the 2024
Arizona Bowl. On July 22, 2024, CW Sports announced that it would rebrand its football coverage as
CW Football Saturday for the upcoming season, adding an eponymous studio show hosted by
Mike Yam. The program, as well as the OSU/WSU games, are produced by Pac-12 Enterprises, which consists of the remaining staff of the Pac-12 Conference's former cable channel
Pac-12 Network. Sports rights expansion continued in late 2024 and 2025. In September 2024, The CW aired the finals of the Chicago Open
beach volleyball tournament as part of a one-off deal with the
Association of Volleyball Professionals. In December 2024, CW added two new ACC women's basketball games to its 2025 sports schedule, creating a pair of Sunday doubleheaders. In the first quarter of 2025, CW Sports announced media rights agreements with
Grand Slam Track the
Association of Volleyball Professionals,
PBA Tour bowling, the HBCU All-Star Basketball game, as well as a renewal of its agreement to air Pac-12 football games for the 2025 season. In June, The CW announced an agreement with the
Savannah Bananas to air one
Banana Ball game in July. In July, The CW announced a multi-year deal with
Professional Bull Riders to air weekend events. Grand Slam Track would only organize three aired meets before cancelling its planned fourth event in Los Angeles, and filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2025, with intentions to return if viable. In August 2025, with the conference expanding to nine members beginning in 2026, the Pac-12 announced a renewal of its broadcasting agreement with CW Sports through the 2030–31 academic year. The contract covers 66 events per-season, including 13 football games, regular season men's (35) and women's (15) basketball games, as well as coverage of the semi-finals and championship of the
Pac-12 women's basketball tournament. In January 2026, The CW announced it had acquired broadcast rights to the MGM Slam Tennis tournament. In February 2026, The CW announced a media rights deal to air college football and basketball games from the
Mountain West Conference. In March 2026, The CW announced an agreement to broadcast six
Savannah Bananas games.
ESPN partnership On April 29, 2026, CW Sports announced an agreement with
ESPN under which it would sublicense the digital rights to its live event programming to its
streaming platform for ESPN "Unlimited" subscribers.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7238846/2026/04/29/the-cw-espn-live-sports-deal/|title=The CW making its live sports available via ESPN’s direct-to-consumer app ==Programs==