The CW will start turning a profit in 2026, majority owner Nexstar Media Group reaffirmed, thanks in large part to a push into live sports.

“During 2025, we will reset affiliation agreements representing more than two-thirds of The CW’s subscriber base,” Nexstar President and COO Mike Biard said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. That move will boost results in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2026, he added.

“Consistent with our prior guidance, we anticipate the impact of these resets on our advertising trajectory will enable the CW to achieve profitability during 2026,” Biard said.

Formerly a 50-50 joint venture of the corporate parents of CBS and Warner Bros., the broadcast network was taken over by Nexstar in 2022 after the local TV giant acquired a 75% stake. Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each maintain 12.5% stakes in the network.

The reset of programming at The CW has been the key driver of results on the bottom line, Biard said. Along with laying off a number of senior execs and lowering overall costs, the network has made a dramatic shift toward sports and unscripted fare. In 2025, it will air about 400 hours of sports or “sports-adjacent” fare, accounting for about 40% of total programming time, “a dramatic change from the old CW, which had no sports programming whatsoever,” Biard said.

“In 2025, we are seeing our new programming investments start to pay dividends,” the exec added.

While sports rights are often expensive, The CW has sought out more affordable offerings as it has established itself in the marketplace. Its portfolio has included college football and basketball, NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, a junior circuit of the stock car racing mainstay, and a similar up-and-comers subsidiary of the WWE in WWE NXT.

In the prior setup, The CW had been positioned as a wide-audience vehicle for young-skewing scripted dramas, gaining audience for them en route to streaming. Nexstar was able to engineer the acquisition of its controlling stake for no upfront cash, agreeing instead to absorb the network’s debt and making it a synergy play with its leading portfolio of local stations. Prior to the deal, Nexstar had already operated the largest set of CW affiliates of any station owner.