Unlocking New Audiences: CW's Bold Streaming Expansion

Broadening Sports Horizons with ESPN Partnership

The CW has secured a significant collaboration with ESPN to live-stream its sports offerings. This agreement means that all athletic competitions broadcast on The CW, including college football and basketball from conferences like the ACC, Pac-12, and Mountain West, as well as WWE NXT and NASCAR’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, will also be accessible live through the ESPN app. This feature will be available to subscribers of the ESPN Unlimited plan starting in the summer, without any additional cost, enhancing the value proposition for sports enthusiasts.

Enhancing Entertainment Accessibility via The Roku Channel

In a separate, equally impactful deal, The CW is teaming up with The Roku Channel to make its entertainment programs available for free streaming. Commencing in the fall, episodes of CW shows will appear on The Roku Channel the day following their linear broadcast. This partnership is particularly strategic given The Roku Channel's status as a leading free streaming platform in the U.S., commanding a substantial share of monthly television usage, as reported by Nielsen’s Gauge figures. This collaboration is set to dramatically increase the exposure of The CW's scripted content.

Strategic Vision: Reaching Viewers Everywhere

Brad Schwartz, President of The CW, emphasized that these agreements are crucial for extending the network's reach and ensuring that content is available across various devices and platforms. He highlighted the goal of capturing audiences across both traditional broadcast and modern streaming channels, thus maximizing accessibility for fans. This dual-pronged strategy aims to deliver flexibility and choice to consumers, allowing them to engage with CW programming wherever and whenever they choose.

Synergistic Benefits for All Parties Involved

Rosalyn Durant, ESPN’s Executive VP of Programming & Acquisitions, echoed the sentiment of enhanced value and flexibility for fans, noting that integrating CW Sports into the ESPN App diversifies the live sports content available within their ecosystem. For The Roku Channel, this partnership not only strengthens its content library but also leverages The CW’s national broadcast presence to attract a larger audience and advertisers. The Roku deal also includes approximately 800 hours of library content from The CW, further enriching the platform's offerings.