The WNBA begins its 30th season with new media rights agreements that make the league “one of the best -- if not the best -- bargains in sports broadcasting,” according to Shlomo Sprung of YAHOO SPORTS. A source said that the agreements total $3.1B over 10 years. Two years ago, the league secured an 11-year, $2.2B deal with Disney/ABC/ESPN and Comcast/NBC/Peacock. It has since signed separate pacts with Paramount/CBS, Scripps/Ion and Versant/USA. This “doesn’t include” a separate deal announced this week in Canada for expansion franchise Toronto Tempo with Bell Media. Based on the WNBA’s growth trajectory, $200M a year for the main rights packages “appears like a relative steal thrown in with the larger NBA package.” WNBPA Exec Dir Terri Carmichael Jackson said, “The players have driven every meaningful metric, and the league is skyrocketing into a different atmosphere right now,” adding the media rights’ value should “move with it.” Jackson: “We see that clearly and expect future deals to reflect that reality, with players part of the process as they should be.” The new deals are “roughly 6.5 times greater than the average annual value of the previous deal that expired at the end of last season.” The league and its media partners have “agreed that it could revisit the value of the deals after three years.” Sprung: “If the latest financial data is any indication, the W has already outgrown the media rights deal before it’s even started” (YAHOO SPORTS, 5/7).
New TV pacts make WNBA a broadcasting ‘bargain’
