The WNBA will reportedly be receiving a collective $2.2 billion over the next 11 years as part of its new media rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon’s Prime Video taking effect in the 2025-26 season. The NBA negotiated these deals as part of its media rights deliberations that ended on a new 11-year contract with the aforementioned companies for $74.6 billion, a deal that was ratified by the NBA Board of Governors on Tuesday. Reports indicate that incumbent rightsholder Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to match Amazon’s package, worth $1.8 billion per year, utilizing a provision with an ambiguous breadth in its existing deal.
National broadcasts of WNBA games currently air on ESPN, Ion, CBS and Amazon in media deals that are valued at approximately $50 million per year. These deals expire after the 2025 season, after which the league is expected to elicit a raise, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
The league has had 15 games average at least 1 million viewers during its current season before the break instituted for competition in the Olympic Games Paris 2024. While ESPN, NBC and Amazon will all air WNBA games as part of the new deal, the league foresees selling two additional rights packages that could bring in another $60 million annually. Earlier in the year, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated that she hoped the league could at least double its media rights fees, a goal that it is projected to surpass.
The rise in WNBA viewership aligns with augmented interest in women’s basketball made evident during the WNBA Draft, which averaged 2.45 million viewers for the most-watched iteration of the event in league history. Prior to the draft, games within the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament broke viewership records, including those with star guard Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. The National Championship Game within the tournament averaged 18.7 million viewers, becoming the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record and most-watched sporting event since 2019 excluding football and the Olympics.
Continued investment in women’s sports is evident across the board with networks and media companies allocating more resources in the space. The NCAA recently agreed to a new media rights deal with ESPN that includes the Women’s Basketball Championship, and Amazon’s Prime Video signed a multiyear extension with the WNBA. The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) started a new media rights deal that will reportedly pay the league $240 million over four years. With the burgeoning value of women’s sports, the league and its media partners have reportedly reached an agreement that will allow them to revisit the rights deals after three years in “good faith talks” that could adjust the price to reflect the growth of the league.
