Southampton’s Jack Stephens will lift the Sky Bet Championship play-off final trophy on May 26, 2024.
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After Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney led their Welsh fifth-tier soccer team to promotion to the English Football League, CBS Sports was swooped in to acquire the U.S. rights to broadcast matches in the three leagues below the flagship Premier League.
The four-year deal will see CBS Sports broadcast at least 250 EFL games across the Championship, League One, League Two, Carabao Cup and Bristol Street Motors Trophy competitions from August through the 2027/28 season. The matches will be shown on Paramount+, with select broadcasts on CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network.
The Premier League will continue to air on NBCUniversal’s NBC Sports, with top-flight matches from the world’s most-watched soccer league being broadcast on NBC, Peacock and USA Network. CBS Sports’ EFL deal follows Reynolds and McElhenney’s journey as they led their Wrexham team to promotion to the EFL’s League One, documented in the Emmy Award-winning FX documentary series. Welcome to Wrexham.
Americans also enjoyed watching English soccer through Apple TV+. Ted LassoThe series follows AFC Richmond, a fictional team inspired by Premier League soccer teams, and ends its first season with The Championship League is the second highest league in the English football pyramid.
“The EFL’s compelling storylines, growing popularity and our top-notch coverage mean we look forward to further growing the league in the U.S.,” Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming for CBS Sports, said of the EFL’s television rights deal for the U.S. market.
NBC Sports has held the exclusive broadcast rights to the US Premier League since 2013, replacing Fox Sports, which held the rights from 1998 to 2013. NBC Sports’ current six-year contract with the English Football League begins in 2022 and is reportedly worth $2.7 billion ($450 million per season), running until the end of the 2027-28 season.
