CBS Sports continues to stack soccer distribution rights, announcing a deal Tuesday that will make Paramount+ the exclusive rights holder for English-language U.S. broadcasts of Concacaf Women’s matches.
The agreement extends through the 2029-30 season, and includes the annual Concacaf W Champions Cup as well as the Concacaf W Nations League in 2028 and the Concacaf W Gold Cup in 2029. Qualifiers will also air on the Paramount+ streaming service.
Select Concacaf (the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) matches will simulcast on CBS Sports Network or CBS Golazo Network.
Adding Concacaf Women’s rights helps solidify Paramount+ as a must-have for diehard American soccer fans. The service already owns rights to UEFA men’s matches as well as NWSL and Serie A.
More broadly, the agreement continues the cordoning-off of soccer behind streaming paywalls in the U.S. For a smaller international league like Concacaf whose lesser games likely would likely not have aired at all in the U.S. prior to the past several years, going behind a paywall makes sense. But following Netflix’s deal for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Apple TV’s deal for global MLS rights, ESPN+ and Peacock sucking up rights across the U.K. and Europe, and TNT Sports’ agreement with U.S. Soccer, a vast number of soccer matches are only accessible in the U.S. through a subscription.
Fortunately, the NWSL, the American women’s league, offers matches across ESPN, Ion and Paramount-owned CBS. And this summer’s FIFA World Cup will be broadcast on Fox, a free broadcast network.
The race to stockpile live sports content has made rights like Concacaf Women’s matches relevant to American distributors, but the scale of the audience for such games on these platforms is unknown.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.