The Colonial Athletic Association announced today its renewed media rights agreements with CBS Sports and FloSports.
The CBS Sports Network side sees an increase in the CAA’s basketball package. On the FCS football side of things, CAA games (along with other sports) will continue to stream on FloSports through 2026-27.
According to the press release, the new eight-figure agreement with FloSports is the most lucrative media rights deal in league history and will see over 1,200 games air annually, including the majority of conference championships.
The CAA and FloSports have been partners since 2019. It hasn’t been a popular subscription platform for CAA fans and FCS fans hoping to watch Colonial football games. A majority of FCS games are available on ESPN+. The CAA’s renewal announcement with Flo was not met with positivity on social media.
However, talking with administrators at a few different schools, it’s clear the CAA and most of its members preferred better linear local TV coverage opportunities over more convenient national streaming access.
“People will hate Flo but that’s mainly because the schools do a bad job with the broadcast,” one school administrator said. “The money allows the conference to have a great hoops package with CBS Sports and allows the schools to get games on local linear networks, which is huge for revenue income and local exposure. Our games go to 15.5 million homes in the #1 and #4 media markets in the US. ESPN offers mid-major conferences a fraction of the rights fee and severely limits the amount of linear broadcasts allowed.”
Another school administrator added, “Schools want the opportunity to use regional cable for games, which ESPN stream only wants games exclusively.”
How the increased money from the new Flo deal is distributed to each school is unknown currently. Some of it likely will be used for broadcast costs for all sports to enhance the quality. The previous deal used the revenue from FloSports to buy more basketball games on CBS Sports Network.
As for the Flo broadcasts, the CAA stated that the contract includes new requirements that will enhance the quality of broadcasts across all streamed sporting events.
“The CAA is excited to be able to both renew and expand its partnerships with CBS Sports and FloSports,” CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio said in a statement. “The ability to work with two tremendous partners that understand the strategic goals of the Conference, has allowed the CAA to provide its membership with one of the most comprehensive media rights packages in the country among mid-major Conferences relative to exposure through CBS Sports Network’s national telecasts as well as revenue and flexibility through our groundbreaking deal with FloSports.”
