Te-Hina Paopao #0 of the South Carolina Gamecox celebrates with the trophy after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament National Championship on April 7, 2024.
Photos by Ben Solomon/NCAA via Getty Images
For years, women’s sports were an afterthought on television, often relegated to ESPN2, Fox Sports 2 or ESPNNews if they were able to secure television rights at all. It was a self-reinforcing cycle of denial: women’s sports weren’t valued, so the demand for rights wasn’t there. But games are rarely played on the biggest platforms, so the untapped potential can never be fulfilled.
But in the past year or so, a wall appears to have broken down with major new football rights deals and a surge of interest in women’s basketball, with rights holders, stakeholders and marketers looking for a bigger piece of the action.
Perhaps nothing exemplifies the surge in interest in women’s sports than the April 1 women’s basketball game between Iowa – led by Caitlin Clark – and LSU – led by Angel Reese – a rematch of last year’s championship game, with star power on both sides of the court. hall.
The game averaged 12.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched college basketball game in ESPN history and the largest audience for any ESPN basketball game (yes, including the NBA) since 2012. That’s until Iowa’s win over UConn on April 5 drew 14.2 million viewers.
Sunday’s finale, in which Iowa lost in a great game to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, is expected to surpass even that number, thanks to its hour Sunday afternoon on ABC, potentially delivering the biggest numbers of any women’s sporting event in history.
Flora Kelly, who heads ESPN’s research department, wrote in an X post that “Obviously, Iowa and Caitlin Clark have delivered record crowds in the early rounds of the tournament, but non-Iowa games are also up +74% year-over-year, signaling widespread momentum throughout the bracket.’
But the recognition of the viewers was waiting for a long time.
“It’s worth remembering that ESPN has owned the rights to the women’s basketball tournament for decades and is only now giving the game the profile, resources and programming shoulder it deserves. Which only hurts his own investments. Keep that in mind when you see the ratings for these games,” Jane McManus, a former ESPN columnist, wrote on LinkedIn. “It’s something I’ve witnessed first-hand there, and I’ve also witnessed a lot of amazing female coverage advocates struggle to find real appeal. And at the same time, ESPN has done more coverage of women and hired more women than any other network.
But even before the Iowa-LSU game, interest in women’s sports was growing. The National Women’s Soccer League is starting a new television rights deal this year — worth about $60 million a year — with ESPN, CBS Sports, Prime Video and Scripps, with all partners promising higher profiles and more exposure.
And now the WNBA — with Clark and Reese already committed for this year’s draft — begins its new rights negotiations in tandem with the NBA.
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 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game.
And ESPN, the WNBA’s other critical rights partner, is just as enthusiastic.
“I’ve actually never been more bullish about women’s sports, and I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s grown tremendously in popularity,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in response to a question at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on April 3, noting the ratings for Iowa-LSU. “It’s just a great, great confirmation that not only has women’s sport come along, but their potential is so huge. And ESPN is pleased to be a part of it and looks forward to being a part of the growth of women’s sports for years to come.”
ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro, speaking at an Axios event on March 19, said his company expects to negotiate the WNBA alongside the NBA rights talks and expressed similar enthusiasm.
Perhaps as important as the renewed interest from TV rights partners is the interest from advertisers. Sports remain the most popular platform in advertising, but women’s sports have long lagged behind leagues like the NBA or NFL, or even the men’s NCAA March Madness tournament.
This is changing in a significant way.
“We support men, we support women. Many of our sponsors are tied to both sites,” said John Diament, who heads sports advertising sales for TNT Sports, which holds the rights to the men’s March Madness tournament. “When you’re an NCAA sponsor, you’re a partner for all 90 NCAA championships, including the women’s championship, so we have a dozen sponsors that are also activating in the women’s tournament area, so we wish them well. They’re part of the team even though it’s on ESPN.”
Perhaps most importantly, on March 27, GroupM (the world’s largest media buying agency) announced a public commitment to double its media investment in women’s sports, creating a dedicated marketplace for transactions starting with this year’s upfront amount.
Advertisers including Ally, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever and Universal Pictures have all joined the effort.
“Rapidly growing audiences are watching at a high clip, and subsequently, women’s sports programming ranks as some of the highest-rated shows overall,” said Dennis Ocasio, chief investment officer, GroupM US. “Advertising alongside women’s sport works.”
But it all comes back to the media partners: the broadcast networks, cable channels and streaming services, which not only televise the games live, but produce shoulder programs and feature women’s sports in documentaries, documentaries, highlights and other programming.
It’s about creating an ecosystem where women’s sport can provide an audience for rights partners, results for sponsors and national and international fame for its stars.
On April 4, during a media presence for the NCAA Women’s Final Four, University of Connecticut star Paige Bookers was asked who will be the biggest star on the women’s side, with college basketball overflowing with talent right now.
“I think media coverage is important to the game. I think it develops the game. Freshman year, I was the darling of the media. Everyone was so focused on me and what I did at UConn my freshman year,” the Huskies guard responded, noting the focus on himself, Clark, Reese and USC star JuJu Watkins. “But the media can do a better job of making sure everyone gets love…spread it more.” The media, or at least the major sports rights partners, seem poised to step up
