Turner Sports Signs Multi-Year Deal With Alliance of American Football

Charlie Ebersol’s new football league launches a week after Super Bowl LIII

NFL fans won’t have to wait for long after Super Bowl LIII to get a new football fix.

The newly-formed Alliance of American Football launches its first season on Feb. 9, and Turner Sports announced on Thursday that they’ve signed a multi-year, cross-platform partnership with the league that will include live event coverage extending across a combination of Turner Sports platforms TNT and the B/R Live streaming service.

TNT will exclusively televise one Alliance regular season game and one playoff game each season throughout the length of the agreement, with additional regular season games available weekly via B/R Live.

“Our focus has always been, and will always be, to create an Alliance of players, fans and the game. Joining forces with world-class partners like Turner Sports allows us to keep our mission moving forward and reach thousands of sports fans across their Turner family of platforms,” Alliance’s co-founder and CEO Charlie Ebersol said in a statement. “Turner’s focus on providing high-quality live event programming and their commitment to digital with B/R Live, fits seamlessly into our distribution model, and ultimately offers fans the opportunity to watch more football.”

Lenny Daniels, president of Turner Sports, added: “We’re looking forward to this exciting partnership with The Alliance — including working closely with its leadership team of Charlie Ebersol, Bill Polian, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu — and share the enthusiasm and forward-thinking vision being applied to this newly-formed league.

“This is a true partnership and The Alliance will have our full support in the distribution of its live game coverage and content across the Turner Sports portfolio.”

TNT will kick off it’s Alliance coverage on with Salt Lake Stallions vs. Birmingham Iron on Saturday, Feb. 16, leading into NBA All-Star Saturday Night – and will conclude with one Alliance playoff matchup in April.

Before then, B/R Live will launch the inaugural season of The Alliance with a special program available Saturday, Feb. 9, introducing fans to the league including some of the top moments from the preseason.  B/R Live’s game coverage will begin Saturday, Feb. 23, with the Arizona Hotshots vs. Salt Lake at 3 p.m. ET.

The Alliance features eight teams with 52-player rosters playing a 10-week regular season schedule beginning Feb. 9 on CBS, followed by two playoff rounds and culminating with the championship game at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas on April 27.

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