International Dance League’s First Media Rights Deal Is With ESPN (Exclusive)

ESPN hopes you dance. Or at least that you like to watch other people dance.

The International Dance League (IDL) has struck its first-ever media rights deal in a partnership with ESPN. IDL events will air on ESPN2 somewhat sporadically (but usually on a Friday) starting Friday, July 17. The events will also be available on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.

In first position is the New York Series; Vancouver (July 28), Sydney (August 10) and Seoul (August 17) follow over the next month. Each competition will air at 7 p.m. ET.

The 2026 IDL season technically already began in May. Since then, the league says it has generated more than 650 million views and impressions.

“Dance already has one of the most passionate fanbases in the world.” said Connor Lim, CEO and co-founder of IDL. “They watch, they share, they show up, and the engagement on social proves that. This agreement provides a chance to show a broader sports audience that dance is both an art form an a legitimate sport, on a global scale.”

IDL is the first global professional dance league, structured as a traditional sports league with teams, a regular season, and a championship format on the international stage. It features six teams from around the world, competing across multiple events in global cities for a season title.

The teams are: Brotherhood (Vancouver, Canada), Quick Style (Oslo, Norway), Jam Republic (Singapore), GRV (Los Angeles, USA), Royal Family (Auckland, New Zealand) and 1MILLION (Seoul, South Korea). The IDL format follows a professional sports model with regular-season events, standardized judging, and a final championship.

Since the International Dance League is, well, international, additional tune-in information includes ESPN and Disney+ in Australia/New Zealand, the Caribbean and Mexico, as well as on Disney+ (and only Disney+) in Brazil, South America, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.