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he International Swimming League (ISL) has announced a multi-year media rights agreement with CBS Sports, to broadcast competitions across the CBS Television Network, CBS Sports Network, and CBS Sports Digital.

The new arrangement with CBS follows a deal signed last season with Disney-owned ESPN.

CBS Sports will broadcast the 2020 season, consisting of 13 events over a five-week period with all events set to take place at Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary.

ISL founder and chairman, Konstantin Grigorishin, said: “we are thrilled with this partnership and the commitment made by CBS to air all ISL events live to its North American audience.”

“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,” he said.

Founded in 2019, the ISL will be the only major swimming competition that take place prior to next summer’s Tokyo Olympics, the league will featuring Olympic gold medallists Sarah Sjöström, Caeleb Dressel, Lilly King and Ryan Murphy.

ISL features 10 teams with five coming from North America and five being of the international variety.

The North American teams will be the Cali Condors, DC Trident, NY Breakers, LA Current, and Toronto Titans.

The International teams will be the Aqua Centurions (Rome), Energy Standard Paris, London Roar, Team Iron (Budapest), and Tokyo Frog Kings.

With COVID-19 having damaged the international swimming calendar, the 2020 ISL season is the sport’s only major competition to be held ahead of next summer’s rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.