CBS Sports has announced a multi-year media rights deal with the International Swimming League. CBS Sports will broadcast ISL events beginning next month.
The deal is a bit of a shakeup for both the ISL and for competitive swimming. Last year, the ISL reached a deal with ESPN for broadcasting within the United States. That deal wasn’t announced until the day before the league’s first match. Televised swimming events have typically resided with ESPN (which holds the rights to NCAA Championships meets) and NBC (which holds Olympic broadcast rights and typically broadcasts World Championships as well).
The International Swimming League is in its second season as a professional swimming league centered around spectator-friendliness and athlete compensation.
Though the league envisioned a major launch to a 6-month, 27-meet season riding momentum from the 2020 Olympics, the coronavirus pandemic postponed the Olympics one year and forced the ISL into alternative plans. The new model will bring league athletes together in Budapest for a five-week training camp that will feature all of the league’s regular-season events. The league has also teased plans for an over-the-top streaming platform that would show behind-the-scenes footage of athletes in training and away from the pool during the five-week block.
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The ISL is the future of competitive swimming. Everything else is irrelevant. It’s a waste of time to even train for the Olympics. ISL plays in favor of the shorter swimmers. If some minorities want to get into a sport that you do not need an agent and can potentially make a lot of money this is the route to go.
How does it favor shorter swimmers? Just because it’s SCM and underwaters matter?
Um, you do realize swimming is one of the most popular sports people watch at the Olympics right? The Olympics is also the where most swimmers get their popularity.
Hmmm, wonder if they can get Rowdy in the booth?
Nothing against Rowdy, but I think a new and fresh announcer would be nice.
Ian Thorpe!
Great idea! Thorpey is a very good commentator. Add in Kurt Hansen and Rebecca Adlington and it’s perfect . Maybe that Andy guy too ( can’t remember his name).
Missy did a really good job last go-round with commentary, would love to see her continue to get opportunities! I agree Adlington was great, and Thorpe would undoubtedly do a good job.
Whomever they get to announce better be full of swimming
Shane Tusup!
LOL
rather have the FINA guys, but I guess it would be a conflict of interest. 🤣
Nicole Livingstone & Bruce McAvaney are the two revered sports announcers that FINA utilized from Oz. Have always loved their commentary style. Bruce in particular is an avid fan of swimming. He called prior WC’s for FINA too & always is knowledgeable & respectful of ALL swimmers.
Someone unbiased would be great
I want ol longhorn and the swimswam troll of the month in the booth
I hope not.
I would go with Summer Sanders. People love her, she has a ton of high-level broadcasting experience, and clearly knows the sport.
Josh Davis does a great job
No!!
I’m just happy they found a legitimate household name to stream the meets instead of the broadcasting the meets on their website
Is it known, what TV company will broadcast ISL events in Europe?
Not announced yet. It was EuroSport last year.
How many commercials and how many events will CBS edit out? Will we get 60% commercials and the rest filler?
I’ve begun to think we have ourselves to blame for this issue. We create a meet with minimal to no breaks, then get appalled when big name networks who rely on ad money are forced to show ads over events. If the ISL can create natural breaks in the order of events, similar to timeouts in basketball or pre-inning warmups in baseball, then maybe we can see all of our events. It’s a little silly to hand a network 2 hours of non-stop content and expect them to just not show ads.
Who pays whom in this arrangement? Does ISL pay CBS to broadcast/stream, or the other way around?