The International Swimming League Inks Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement With CBS Sports

The International Swimming League (ISL) announced a multi-year media rights agreement with CBS Sports on Thursday to showcase the league’s events across CBS Sports platforms to the American audience, according to a release sent out by the league.

“We are thrilled with this partnership and the commitment made by CBS to air all ISL events live to its North American audience,” says International Swimming League Founder and Chairman, Konstantin Grigorishin. “From the beginning, the team at CBS really impressed us with their understanding of our vision. This partnership will provide a wonderful platform to showcase the world’s best swimmers, female and male, challenging each other in the most entertaining competitive format ever created in the sport.”

The ISL, which debuted in 2019 on ESPN’s online streaming platform ESPN3, will hold its second season in Budapest, Hungary starting October 16 and will last only five weeks, due to concerns over the current COVID-19 pandemic with a strict medical protocol in place to ensure safety for all competitors and working staff. The ISL Grand Finals location and dates will be announced separately.

Swimmers will be tested twice for Covid-19 before leaving their country of origin and then twice in Budapest before they can be cleared to train with athletes to be tested every five days.

ISL competition will take place without spectators with five matches in October starting on 16 of that month.

That will be followed by a further five from 15 November to decide the top eight teams who will qualify for the semi-finals held from November 19-22.

The top four will then progress to the final to be held in late December – date to be confirmed – and with Tokyo as the desired destination.

Current schedule:

• October 16: 10:00am- 12:00pm ET live on CBS Sports Network
• October 17: 2:00-4:00pm ET live on CBS Television Network

CBS Sports will present the entire 2020 ISL season of 13 events, 52 hours in total, live across various platforms. The remainder of the schedule will be announced at a later date.

“We are pleased to add International Swimming League to the CBS Sports portfolio with live swimming across various platforms,” said CBS Sports Executive Vice President of Programming Dan Weinberg. “ISL’s exciting team-based competitions, featuring the world’s top swimmers, is a great fit for CBS Sports and we look forward to bringing the action to swim fans across the country.”