The National Football League’s Cleveland Browns have reached a long-term contract extension with News 5 in which the local Northeast Ohio broadcaster will remain the team’s official flagship station for preseason games and exclusive year-round programming.
The new agreement continues a relationship between the two that began in 2015. During 2019, Browns preseason games shown on News 5 average a local 20.5 Nielsen rating, the sixth-highest such figure among NFL markets during the preseason.
In addition to the exhibition games, the team and station will collaborate on a variety of behind-the-scenes and documentary programming, as well as weekly preview and pregame shows during the regular season.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Our partnership with News 5 has created many unique opportunities to share our organization’s stories with Browns fans during preseason game broadcasts and throughout the year,” said Dave Jenkins, Browns executive vice president and chief operating officer. “We look forward to building on that foundation.”
The agreement in structure is very similar to a local broadcast deal recently struck by fellow NFL team the Los Angeles Chargers.