The CW bolsters sports portfolio with PBA

The CW continues to add to its growing sports portfolio.

Beginning next year, the Nexstar-owned broadcast channel will air 10 Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) telecasts as part of a two-year agreement announced on Wednesday. The PBA will announce its other broadcast plans at a later date.

Big news: Starting in 2026, The CW will be the new home for 10 PBA Tour telecasts — part of a consistent Sunday broadcast schedule reaching millions of households nationwide 📺

But that’s just the beginning… 👀 Stay tuned for more announcements on where you can catch the rest… https://t.co/aPHf8DLrrJ

— PBA Tour (@PBATour) April 30, 2025

For a niche property, bowling has done exceptionally well on television. Fox has been the PBA’s primary broadcast partner since the 2018-19 season. As part of its last deal, a two-year agreement that started in 2023-24, Fox aired eight marquee PBA events on its broadcast channel and 22 other events on FS1. Last year, Fox averaged 738,000 viewers for the PBA World Championship

Given that the league’s new deal with The CW is for its best events, including the championship, it’s safe to assume another broadcast channel is unlikely to buy the remaining inventory.

According to a report by Mollie Cahillane in Sports Business Journal, live sports now accounts for around 40% of The CW’s programming; that’s quite a number considering the network only started airing live sports in 2023. The CW now holds rights for ACC football and basketball, most of the “Pac-2” football games, NASCAR’s Xfinity series, WWE NXT, and Grand Slam Track.

Clearly, its strategy of acquiring lower-tier inventory from major entities and premier inventory from niche sports leagues is working. As the cable bundle dwindles, broadcast continues to be a desirable destination for sports properties that want to get their product in front of as many eyeballs as possible. A free-to-air channel like The CW accomplishes that.