WarnerMedia will be the new home of United States men’s and women’s soccer games beginning next year.
In an eight-year agreement that sources say is for around $200 million, all non-World Cup and CONCACAF national team games will be on WarnerMedia’s streaming service, HBO Max, while the biggest games will also air on TNT.
ESPN and Fox previously had these games, but both networks decided against putting in bids to retain them, according to sources.
The rights for future MLS games are being sold separately. The Post previously reported that MLS has had talks with Apple about those matches. MLS’ current agreement with ESPN, Fox and Univision ends after this season.
Fox holds the rights to the men’s and women’s World Cup, as well as CONCACAF competitions.
For Turner Sports, this is the first deal post-Jeff Zucker. Zucker resigned as the head of CNN and Turner Sports after the discovery of a consensual relationship with fellow WarnerMedia executive Allison Gollust. Zucker failed to disclose the relationship, which was against company policy.
With WarnerMedia, TNT’s parent company, and Discovery merging, the company now has rights to the NBA, MLB, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NHL and soccer. It is expected to continue going heavy into live sports rights negotiations.
“This is more of what we always do,” Turner Sports president Lenny Daniels said.
Turner held the rights to the Champions League for two years before relinquishing them to CBS. For soccer fans, there are varying rights to games on Peacock, Paramount+, ESPN+ and now HBO Max.
During this agreement, Turner will have more than 20 U.S. women’s and men’s soccer games on HBO Max and TNT.
It will be the home to the men’s and women’s World Cup qualifiers, though for the 2026 World Cup the men’s team will have an automatic spot because it will be one of the hosts for the tournament. Those games are expected to be filled by friendlies. The deal will also have matches against Mexico.
The agreement includes the SheBelieves Cup, as well as send-off and follow-up matches around the World Cup and the Olympics. WarnerMedia also is the home to Bleacher Report and it believes it can grow the U.S. women’s game even more.
