Another View
Is the recently announced WNBA media rights deal a fair valuation of the league at a time of heightened growth and popularity?
Beginning with the 2026 season and running through the 2036 season, Disney will distribute WNBA games on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2 and stream them on ESPN’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer service. NBCU will distribute its games on NBC, USA Network, and/or Peacock, while Amazon will stream its games globally on Prime Video.
Under the new agreements, the partners will distribute more than 125 regular-season and playoff games nationally each season, including a minimum of 25 games on Disney platforms, 50 on NBCU platforms, and 30 on Prime Video.
Disney and NBCU will also distribute games in key international markets, and Prime Video will distribute games globally to more than 200 million Prime members.
“These agreements allow the league to continue to build a long-term and sustainable growth model for the future of women’s basketball and sports, which will benefit WNBA players, teams, and fans,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a released statement.
Almost immediately after the historic hoopla, the new deal also produced questions.
The NBA, which owns 60% of the WNBA, negotiated the deal along with its new deal with the same broadcast partners as the W. The 11-year package is reportedly worth $77 billion—an estimated nearly $7 billion on average per season.
The W’s deal is roughly $200 million for the same 11-year period.
Terri Carmicheal Jackson told the Washington Post, “The NBA controls the destiny of the WNBA. We have wondered for months how the NBA would value the WNBA in its media rights deal.”
Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller said during WNBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix just days before the new deal was officially announced that any final number for the W would be “a lowball.”
“We need tough and fair negotiations and visionaries,” said Miller, “and we need a bully behind the table that’s willing to say, ‘We will break up the pieces and go from there.’”
Furthermore, the WNBA still has existing broadcast deals with Ion and CBS that run through 2025—the Ion deal is worth $13 million a year.
The league is expected to negotiate at least two more deals, possibly re-upping with Ion and CBS, which could push the total deal as high as $260 million a season.
“We have seen our highest attendance in 26 years,” said Engelbert. “A lot of our teams are up triple digits in attendance, and we have 16 WNBA games this year that have averaged at least one million viewers, the most in any WNBA season in league history, and we’re just over a little over halfway through the season.”
“The WNBA media deal is only the beginning,” stressed Dr. Jen Fry, who owns a social justice education firm and works with teams and organizations on best practices that create more equity. “I would add that women are playing catch-up in a system that has devalued them in all ways, especially monetarily. Everyone watches women’s sports.”
However, Jackson added her concern about whether the NBA properly values the WNBA: “We look forward to learning how the NBA announced a $2 million valuation. Neither the NBA nor the WNBA can deny that in the last few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics.”
Time will tell if the new WNBA media deal is real or just smoke and mirrors.