Sky Sports will be broadcasting NCAA College Football and Basketball games through a partnership with ESPN.
The UK sports broadcaster will show live games from the US college football and basketball calendar including marquee events such as all bowl games in football and basketball’s March Madness.
Sky Sports has obtained the rights to broadcast both US college sports up until the end of the 2024-25 seasons. Three live college football games will be broadcasted per week on the network’s dedicated NFL channel. A further three NCAA basketball games will be shown every week during the regular season in the build-up to March Madness.
Sky Sports will also launch a newly dedicated channel titled ‘College GameDay Live’ featuring every Saturday in the build-up to key college football games. The show will also roam around different college campuses and game sites each week.
College GameDay Live made its debut on Sky Sports at 2pm on 18 November, which was the lead up before the channel broadcasted the Louisville Cardinal’s 38-31 victory over the Miami Hurricanes.
In a bid to boost its US football coverage, the inclusion of NCAA Football games will be a welcomed addition to UK fans as Sky Sports has held rights to broadcast NFL fixtures for the last 25 years.
However, the broadcaster lost the rights to live NBA coverage to TNT Sports last summer. The deal to acquire rights for NCAA Basketball games maintains the broadcasters commitment to basketball both in the US and domestically.
Sky Sports – for the fourth consecutive year – renewed its broadcast deal with the British Basketball League for the 2023-24 season. Speaking to Insider Sport, British Basketball League Head of Broadcast Mani Gill hailed Sky Sports’ commitment to the sports growth in the UK.
Gill said: “From the outset, we were passionate about showcasing more of the action across Sky’s linear channels than ever before.
“So, we were thrilled to agree to 40 games across Sky’s channels this season, including coverage of our highly anticipated new All-Star competition taking place in March 2024. Sky also carry the league’s new highlights show UNBEATABLE, offering 9 weekly repeats and VOD access.”
