The CW, FOX Nation Saddle Up for PBR Camping World Team Series Broadcast, streamed coverage is designed to spur fanbase expansion By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Thursday, August 7, 2025 - 1:59 pm
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This weekend marks the birth of a new era for PBR on TV: the world's preeminent bull-riding league kicks off a pair of new media-rights deals with The CW and FOX Nation. The PBR Camping World Team Series broadcasts, which will continue to be handled by PBR's in-house production team, will start with the league's Freedom Days event in Sunrise, FL.
The action begins Friday night from Amerant Bank Arena, when FOX Nation debuts PBR Friday Night Live followed by live coverage on The CW on Saturday and Sunday. CBS takes the reins for the PBR Game of the Week - a two-hour window featuring a tripleheader of games - on Sunday afternoon before CW closes it out with its final day of coverage. In PBR lingo, a game is a head-to-head battle between two of its 10 teams; the team with the highest aggregate score from its five riders wins the game.
In addition, PBR will beam Freedom Days into Cosm's Dallas and Los Angeles shared-reality venues throughout the weekend.
Quality can never be compromised at any level of our production from the live events to media screens, PBR Commissioner/CEO Sean Gleason says of the league's emphasis on delivering top-notch production quality. PBR delivers one of the most dynamic, exciting, and edge-of-your-seat sporting events going, and it takes a major commitment and attention to every detail to bring it to life for fans sitting at home. As we look to expand our fanbase to new audiences, quality of production is critical.
FOX Nation and The CW are joining the 2025 season at the third event of the 12-event PBR Camping World Team Series regular season. With both deals inked just weeks ahead of this weekend's debut, PBR, The CW, and FOX Nation were engaged in non-stop planning, meetings, and execution even before the two rights announcements were made last month.
Each broadcast will feature PBR's base on-air graphics package but will incorporate each network's watermarks and logos. The league's creative team built the broadcast-graphics package with a changeable framework to accommodate each network's colors (for example, more orange for CW and red, white, and blue for FOX Nation).
According to Gleason, the new deals - complementing the league's existing pact with longtime primary media partner CBS, which runs through 2030 - will make the sport available to more fans than ever while providing new ways to tell our athletes' stories of courage, grit, and determination.
Gleason and the PBR teams' front offices are optimistic that being on FOX Nation, The CW, and CBS for complete coverage of each team's 35-game regular season plus the playoffs will help build local fanbases - essential to the four-year-old league's success and continued expansion. Case in point, the league, which grew from eight to 10 teams by the third season, in 2024, has seen double-digit increases in advance ticket sales for the 2025 season.
The CW The CW will cover each event weekend, which will feature 10 teams playing five-on-five bull-riding games leading to the league's championship weekend at Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena in October.
The CW is touting the series alongside the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which strengthens the network as a destination for the passionate fanbases of two growing sports with strong heartland appeal.
The CW, the nation's fifth major broadcast network, reaches 100% of U.S. television households and has affiliates in many cities that PBR visits, offering news and morning-show opportunities when the cowboys and bulls storm into town. Fans watching NASCAR on the network from Iowa Speedway last weekend couldn't miss the prominent PBR promos.
PBR on The CW brings a whole new level of grit, adrenaline, and edge-of-your-seat action to bull-riding fans nationwide, says Mike Perman, SVP, Sports, The CW Network. Paired with the NASCAR Xfinity Series, weekends on The CW will be a can't-miss destination to experience two of the nation's fastest-growing sports with some of the most passionate fanbases in the country.
FOX Nation This marks FOX Nation's first foray into live sports after working closely with PBR on its livestream of Kid Rock's Rock N Rodeo event at AT&T Stadium on May 16. While in Arlington, TX, PBR worked extensively with FOX Nation's graphics, technology, and transmission teams to set the table for this weekend's coverage from Sunrise. In addition, PBR mic flags and desk graphics made for the concert/rodeo event will be used on FOX Nation livestreams.
Our partnership with PBR reflects the ongoing mission at FOX Nation to deliver a high-quality, interactive viewing experience for our subscribers, says Gavin Hadden, SVP, FOX Nation. We're pleased to bring this dynamic competition to our platform as our debut into live sports and look forward to a successful inaugural event.
In addition to the PBR Teams competition coverage, on Friday night, FOX Nation will host and stream a concert with country-music artist Chris Janson to kick off PBR Freedom Days. FOX Nation host Abby Hornacek will be onsite to cover the event, and plans are in the works for coverage on FOX & Friends as well.
The streaming service, which is also offering the competition reality series Last Cowboy Standing, will carry 10 Friday Night Teams telecasts this season, culminating in the league's championship opener on Oct. 24 in Vegas.
Kate Harrison, the face of Last Cowboy Standing, will host FOX Nation's exclusive live coverage on Friday nights. For the rest of the weekend, she returns to her sideline-reporting role for
