Turner Sports signed an eight-year deal to carry the U.S. Soccer men’s and women’s national team games through '30. Turner will pay an average of around $25-27M per year for the rights, sources say. This represents a big win for U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone, who oversaw a risky move last year when the federation ended its relationship with Soccer United Marketing and embarked to sell U.S. Soccer’s rights on its own. It has been widely reported that SUM paid the USSF around $30M to sell for a variety of rights that included English- and Spanish-language media rights in the U.S., international media rights, sponsorship and licensing. U.S. Soccer, which is expected to announce a domestic Spanish-language deal in the next several weeks and international deals in the coming months, almost certainly will see a huge revenue increase from that move.
Turner’s deal, which starts in '23, includes more than 20 games involving the USMNT and USWNT each year. HBO Max will stream all of the games live. TBS and TNT have committed to carry about half of them, which will be simulcast on HBO Max. This means that HBO Max will carry around 10 games per year exclusively. HBO Max was part of Turner’s NHL announcement, but this marks the first scheduled live sport for the streaming service. Bleacher Report ended up with highlight rights as part of the deal.
“This is a unique deal that fits all of our strategic initiatives,” said Turner President Lenny Daniels. “It’s a high-quality, multiplatform product that reaches across the entire portfolio.” The deal encompasses World Cup qualifiers, friendlies, send-off matches and the SheBelieves Cup. The deal also gives Turner the opportunity to integrate sports betting into the telecasts. “We’re all about quality instead of quantity, and this deal fits into that,” Daniels said. “It fits into our portfolio along with all our other sports.” Turner also holds the rights to the NBA, MLB, NHL and March Madness.
U.S. Soccer used Sports Media Advisors’ Doug Perlman as a consultant on this deal.
