In March 2017, the U.S. international sports channel One World Sports was replaced by Eleven Sports Network with no advance announcement.[1] One World Sports' staff had been furloughed as a cost-cutting measure in November 2016, and it was reported that the network was exploring a sale.[2]
On March 16, 2017, Eleven Sports officially announced that it had acquired "certain distribution assets" of One World Sports. Financial details of the sale were not disclosed.[3] Group Marketing Director Danny Menken explained that Eleven planned to target rights to niche international sports that have fanbases in the United States (as opposed to its business model in other territories, where Eleven targets the top international sports rights in smaller markets).[4]
In response to questions surrounding employees and freelancers of One World Sports that had not yet been paid for their work, he emphasized that they had only acquired "certain distribution assets", and that "people that have issues with [GA-SW] have to contact management, but we have no shares or relationship beyond the acquisition of distribution assets."[4]
In March 2018, Eleven started to live stream on Twitch with select programing called Eleven Sports Prime.[5] It would rebrand to Eleven Sports Next by the end of the year. On March 21, 2019, it was announced Eleven Sports was added on free OTT service Xumo.[6]Pluto TV added Eleven Sports on July 23, 2019.[7] The online feeds do not carry the full Eleven Sports schedule, as several sporting events are blacked out and not allowed to be distributed online; filler programs are substituted during such programs.
Eleven's Big Sky contract includes weekly games in football and men's basketball, as well as some conference tournament games for men's and women's basketball, and women's soccer, volleyball, and softball.[13] Eleven Sports also announced a partnership with Twitter to stream 7 of its Ivy League football games during the 2017 season.[14]
In March 2021, the cable and satellite channel was rebranded as Next Level Sports; its online presence, which has been branded as For the Fans since 2019, retained that brand.
