For a long time, truTV wasn’t much more than a repository for reruns of comedy shows and reality programming. But Warner Bros. Discovery has been shifting the focus of the cable channel in recent months, as in March the company rolled out a nightly lineup of live sports content, including highlights, alternate broadcasts of live games appearing on TNT and TBS, and more. This week, WBD announced it was ready to start expanding the sports offerings on truTV to reflect its newly-gained broadcast rights for college football and basketball, tennis, and more.

Key Details:

• TNT Sports will televise almost 1,000 hours of sports content on truTV this year, with more coming in 2025.
• WBD has acquired the rights to Big East basketball, Mountain West and CFP football, NASCAR, and the French Open in recent months.
• Viewers can also watch sports content from truTV on WBD’s on-demand streaming service Max.

The expansion of truTV’s sports programming this fall comes thanks to its parent company’s hard work in acquiring the rights to more marquee events. WBD has been crisscrossing the sports world of late, trying to add just about anything it can to its inventory as it looks more and more likely to lose the NBA after the upcoming season.

The nightly sports bloc on truTV will begin expanding this fall as more sports arrive on WBD’s channels. TNT has a new pact in place with the Mountain West to broadcast that conference’s football games starting in 2024, and WBD has also sublicensed a selection of College Football Playoff games from ESPN in a deal that starts this season. In addition, truTV will have access to content from the MLB playoffs, NHL and NBA regular seasons, U.S. Soccer, and more this fall.

In 2025, the sports programming slate on truTV will expand even further. Next year, TNT Sports will begin broadcasting a package of NASCAR Cup Series races, in a deal that will also see races offered on Prime Video, as well as Fox and NBC channels. truTV will get practice and qualifying events, while the races themselves will air on TNT and Max, which airs live sports content from TNT, TBS, and truTV in its Bleacher Report Sports Add-On.

Also starting in 2025, TNT Sports gains the ability to offer Big East men's and women's basketball games, with more than 65 contests per season set to appear on its airwaves. Next year will also be TNT Sports’ first as a broadcast partner of the French Open tennis tournament, and extensive coverage of the event will be offered on truTV.

“We’re very pleased with the early launch of the TNT Sports programming block on truTV and will expand our commitment to bolstering the dedicated primetime sports lineup this Fall,” said Craig Barry, EVP at TNT Sports. “Just as Adult Swim takes over for a different audience at night from Cartoon Network, we aspire for TNT Sports on truTV to be a go-to destination for a dynamic range of fans seeking not only more premium sports but also alternate ways to experience and enjoy them, along with additional culturally relevant and entertaining sports content.”

In addition to new sports content, truTV will welcome branding and graphics from TNT Sports this fall, more closely aligning the new channels. Viewers will begin to see this change in October, but the nightly shows such as “TNT Sports Tonight” and “The Line,” unscripted competitive shows including “Wipeout,” featured sports movies, documentaries, and scripted series will continue to run alongside the new programming.

WBD’s future as an NBA broadcaster is murky at best at the moment, but as it has continued to seek out other sports deals it has insisted that they’re not intended to make up for a loss of NBA rights. Whether or not that’s true is open to interpretation, but the company certainly has enough new sports options to make an expansion of the nightly sports bloc on truTV a worthwhile endeavor.