{"id":616038,"date":"2024-04-08T17:41:31","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T14:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/womens-sports-tv-rights-boom-may-have-finally-arrived\/"},"modified":"2024-04-08T17:41:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T14:41:31","slug":"womens-sports-tv-rights-boom-may-have-finally-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/womens-sports-tv-rights-boom-may-have-finally-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"#Women\u2019s Sports\u2019 TV Rights Boom May Have Finally Arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n For years, women\u2019s sports was an afterthought for TV, frequently relegated to ESPN2, Fox Sports 2 or ESPNNews<\/a>, if they were able to secure TV rights at all. It was a self-reinforcing cycle of denial: Women\u2019s sports didn\u2019t rate, so the demand for the rights wasn\u2019t there. But the game<\/a>s rarely got play on the biggest platforms, so the untapp<\/a>ed potential could never be met.<\/p>\n

\n But over the last year or so, it seems like a dam has broken, with big new rights deals for soccer and a surge of interest in women\u2019s basketball, with both rightsholders, stakeholders, and marketers seeking a bigger piece of the action.<\/p>\n

\n Perhaps nothing exemplifies the rise of interest in women\u2019s sports than the April 1 women\u2019s college basketball matchup between Iowa \u2013 led by Caitlin Clark \u2013 and LSU \u2013 led by Angel Reese \u2013 a rematch of last year\u2019s championship game, with star power on both sides of the court.<\/p>\n

\n The game averaged 12.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched college basketball game in ESPN history, and the largest audience for any basketball game on ESPN (yes, including the NBA) since 2012. That is, until Iowa\u2019s win over UConn on April 5 drew 14.2 million viewers. <\/p>\n

\n Sunday\u2019s final, in which Iowa lost in a great game to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, is expected to top even that number, thanks to its Sunday afternoon timeslot on ABC, potentially delivering the biggest numbers for any women\u2019s sporting event in history.<\/p>\n

\n Flora Kelly, who leads ESPN\u2019s research division, wrote in a post on X that \u201cobviously, Iowa & Caitlin Clark have delivered record-breaking audiences in the early rounds of the tournament, but non-Iowa games are also up +74% YoY, signaling widespread momentum across the bracket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n But the recognition from viewers was a long time coming.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWorth remembering that ESPN has had the rights to the women\u2019s basketball tournament for decades and only now is giving the game the profile, resources and shoulder programming it deserved. Which only hurt its own investment. Remember that when you see the ratings for these games,\u201d wrote Jane McManus, a former ESPN columnist, on LinkedIn. \u201cIt\u2019s something I witnessed first hand there, and I also witnessed a lot of incredible advocates for women\u2019s coverage who had a hard time finding real traction. And at the same time, ESPN has done more women\u2019s coverage, and hired more women, than any other network.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n But even before the Iowa-LSU game, interest in women\u2019s sports was rising. The National Women\u2019s Soccer League is kicking off a new TV rights deal this year \u2014 worth an estimated $60 million per year \u2014\u00a0 with ESPN, CBS Sports, Prime Video and Scripps, with all partners promising higher profiles and more exposure.<\/p>\n

\n And now the WNBA \u2013 with Clark and Reese now committed for this year\u2019s draft \u2013 is embarking on its new rights talks in tandem with the NBA.<\/p>\n

\n On April 5 Prime Video, which has made sports a top strategic priority, announced a multi-year extension with the WNBA, a deal that includes 21 games per season including the Championship Game of the WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup.<\/p>\n

\n And ESPN, the WNBA\u2019s other critical rights partner, is similarly enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve actually never been more bullish about women\u2019s sports and I think it\u2019s quite evident that its popularity has grown tremendously,\u201d Disney CEO Bob Iger said, in response to a question at the company\u2019s annual shareholder meeting April 3, noting the ratings for Iowa-LSU. \u201cThat\u2019s just a tremendous, tremendous affirmation that not only have women\u2019s sports arrived, but their potential is so tremendous. And ESPN is pleased to be part of that and expects to be part of the growth of women\u2019s sports for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro, speaking at an Axios event March 19, said that his company expects to negotiate the WNBA together with its NBA rights talks, and expressed similar enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\n Perhaps just as important as the renewed interest from TV rights partners is interest from advertisers. Sports remains the highest-profile platform in advertising, but women\u2019s sports has long lagged behind leagues like the NBA or NFL, or even the men\u2019s NCAA March Madness tournament.<\/p>\n

\n That is changing, in a significant way.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe root for the men, we root for the women. Many of our sponsors are tied into both properties,\u201d said Jon Diament, who leads sports ad sales for TNT Sports, which holds the rights to the men\u2019s March Madness tournament. \u201cWhen you\u2019re an NCAA sponsor, you are a partner for all 90 NCAA championships, including the women\u2019s championships, so we have a dozen sponsors also activating on property with the women\u2019s tournament, so we wish them well. They\u2019re part of the team, even though they\u2019re broadcast on ESPN.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Perhaps most significantly, on March 27, GroupM (it\u2019s the world\u2019s largest media<\/a> buying agency) announced a public commitment to double media investment in women\u2019s sports, creating a dedicated marketplace to transact beginning with this year\u2019s upfront.<\/p>\n

\n Advertisers including Ally, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever and Universal Pictures have all signed on to the effort.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cFast-growing audiences are watching at a high clip, and subsequently, women\u2019s sports programming is in the ranks with some of the highest rated broadcasts overall,\u201d said Denise Ocasio, Executive Director of Investment, GroupM US. \u201cAdvertising alongside women\u2019s sports works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n But it all comes back to the media partners: The broadcast networks, cable channels and streaming services that not only televise the live games, but produce the shoulder programming, and feature women\u2019s sports in documentaries, docuseries<\/a>, highlights shows and other programming.<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s about creating an ecosystem where women\u2019s sports can deliver an audience for rights partners, results for sponsors, and national and international fame for its stars.<\/p>\n

\n On April 4, at a media availability for the NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four, University of Connecticut star Paige Bueckers was asked who the nest big star women\u2019s player will be, with college basketball currently overflowing with talent.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think media coverage is important for the game. I think it grows the game. Freshman year, I was the media darling. Everybody was so focused on me and what I did at UConn my freshman year,\u201d The Huskies guard replied, noting the focus on herself, Clark, Reese and USC star JuJu Watkins. \u201cBut the media can do a better job making sure everyone gets love\u2026 spread it out more.\u201d The media, or at least the major sports rights partners, appear ready to step up<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, women\u2019s sports was an afterthought for TV, frequently relegated to ESPN2, Fox Sports 2 or ESPNNews, if they were able to secure TV rights at all. It was a self-reinforcing cycle of denial: Women\u2019s sports didn\u2019t rate, so the demand for the rights wasn\u2019t there. But the games rarely got play on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":616039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-2139236307.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[80995],"class_list":["post-616038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-ncaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}