With ESPN tipping off coverage of the WNBA playoff semifinals on Sunday (September 24), the programmer is optimistic about continuing its solid regular-season ratings run into the final rounds of the postseason. 

The league’s top two teams, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty, are on a collision course to meet in the finals if they can get through tough matchups with the Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun, respectively. The first round of the WNBA playoffs averaged 379,000 viewers during the playoffs’ nine-game quarterfinal round. That’s down 3% from to last season, when those games aired in August without competition from NFL regular-season and college football games. 

ESPN VP of production Sara Gaiero said the semifinal matchups offer similar compelling storylines to those that drove an 18% year-to-year increase in regular-season WNBA ratings for ESPN, ABC and ESPN2.

Aided by an increase in 2023 regular season games to 40 from 36, WNBA teams and players set several league records during the campaign, including the most wins by a team (the Aces won a record 34 games) and the most points in a season by an individual player, broken by the Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd, the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and the Aces’ A’Ja Wilson.

“We had the most-viewed season in years, and I think that speaks to the momentum behind women’s sports in general and the WNBA in particular,” Gaiero said. “What we’ve seen is the desire for the consumption of the sport continue to elevate, and we’ve ridden that all the way into the playoffs. As the playoffs continue, we will lean into the storylines presented to us.” 

The NBA and NHL playoffs continue to pay big dividends to TNT and ESPN as both networks landed at the top of the primetime chart last week.

TNT averaged 2.8 million viewers in primetime for the week of May 16 to May 22 to finish in first for the third straight week, followed by ESPN, which finished second with 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. 

Fox News finished third in primetime with 2.2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 910,000 viewers and HGTV with 903,000 watchers. TLC pulled into sixth place with 804,000 viewers, followed by INSP (780,000 viewers), Hallmark Channel (758,000), History (672,000) and Food Network (659,000.)

On a 24-hour basis, Fox News won for the 20th consecutive week with 1.4 million viewers, followed by ESPN (831,000 viewers), TNT (788,000), MSNBC (603,000) and HGTV (526,000), according to network officials.   

ESPN on Monday (May 2) will drop the puck on coverage of its first Stanley Cup Playoffs under parent The Walt Disney Co.’s new seven-year deal with the National Hockey League, featuring 12 playoff games airing on ESPN and ESPN2 over the next three nights. 

All of Disney’s playoff telecasts will air on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT and TBS also airing games. On the digital front, ESPN Plus will feature replay coverage of every playoff game and will simulcast all Disney-distributed NHL conference finals and Stanley Cup Finals games live.

Disney will look to build on its regular-season ratings momentum. ESPN and ABC averaged 616,000 viewers across a slate of 26 game telecasts. That’s up from the 391,000 viewers previous rightsholders NBC and NBCSN averaged during the 2021-22 season, according to Sports Business Journal. 

ESPN senior VP of programming and acquisitions Ilan Ben-Hanan spoke to Multichannel News about the network’s multiplatform Stanley Cup Playoffs strategy. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation.

MCN: Do you feel you're sufficiently serving the hockey fan with your multiplatform approach? 

Ilan Ben-Hanan: I think that we have both qualitative and quantitative data to kind of back that up. Beyond the [linear] ratings, we saw increases in our female demos for our hockey coverage year-over-year from our previous partners, and we saw insane growth in our hockey content consumed on ESPN.com. To be completely transparent, some of that comes with being the rightsholder and having expansive rights in that space. But getting those rights is one thing, using them is another and making sure fans know to come and engage with it is quite another. Going into the playoffs, we’re going to make [ESPN2 weekly NHL studio show] The Point a daily series. We recently launched other shows like The Drop on social platforms YouTube and Twitter, and we launched an NHL TikTok page, which is another prong in our strategy of serving hockey fans where they are. 

MCN: How will your playoff coverage differ from what viewers saw during the regular season? 

IBH: Starting Monday with the NHL Playoffs and the NBA playoffs happening simultaneously — and with ESPN and the Turner Sports networks holding rights to both — it’s almost going to be a square dance for us. Every night if we’re going big with hockey, Turner’s going big with the NBA, and vice versa. If you're a sports fan, you'll be able to find meaningful, do-or-die playoff games on networks that you know in ESPN and ESPN2, TNT and TBS. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we're gonna have 12 playoff games — four games a night with doubleheaders each on ESPN and ESPN2. Turner Sports will have [NHL] games Thursday and Friday, and we’ll each have games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Every time one of us has hockey, the other will have NBA games. It feels like March Madness, but bigger because it lasts longer and it’s multiple sports categories. 

MCN: What role does the streaming platform play in the postseason with all the NHL postseason games moving to linear?

IBH: All of the live games will be on a linear network somewhere, either on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT or TBS, but the digital component does not go away. There are a lot of things we're doing on the digital side. Every single playoff game is available through archive re-airs on ESPN Plus. In addition, we're gonna be simulcasting the Conference finals and the Stanley Cup Finals on ESPN Plus. In addition, we’re going to have on ESPN Plus Quest for the Stanley Cup, which we produce in partnership with the NHL, that goes behind the scenes and inside the locker room with teams. So yes, the television live games will be on linear television, but the overarching multiplatform approach continues and even enhances when it comes to the playoffs.

MCN: By what metrics will you use to determine whether ESPN’s first year of NHL coverage under its new TV deal is a success? 

IBH: While the ratings are important, that’s not the only metric by which we judge success. Getting to see the usage on ESPN Plus and being innovative in bringing live sports to Hulu, as well as being able to launch these storytelling franchises and studio shows like The Drop and launching on TikTok are all how we measure our success. If it was just a ratings play, we’d be happy with that, too, but that’s not the only metric. I've been beating that drum internally a lot, because I think there are a lot of people who have for years and years thought whether the ratings were up or down was all that matters, but it's not. It’s a much, much broader and more well-rounded story than that. ▪️ 

The NBA will launch its postseason Tuesday (April 12) with the play-in tournament to determine the league's first round playoffs lineup.

The play-in round features the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place teams playing in an elimination tournament to determine who advances to the first round of the NBA playoffs. Tonight’s games on TNT feature matchups between the seventh and eighth-place teams in the Eastern Conference (Brooklyn Nets-Cleveland Cavaliers) and Western Conference (Minnesota Timberwolves-Los Angeles Clippers). 

The winners will advance to the playoffs, while the losers will play the winners of tomorrow night’s games between the ninth and 10th place teams in each conference. ESPN will televise those games featuring the Eastern Conference’s Atlanta Hawks-Charlotte Hornets and Western Conference’s New Orleans Pelicans-San Antonio Spurs contests.

Also: ESPN Re-Signs Doris Burke to Multi-Year Extension

ESPN and TNT on April 15 will each air one of two games that will determine the eighth and final NBA playoff slot in each conference, according to the league. 

The first round of the NBA Playoffs begin April 16 with four games on ESPN and ABC.  ■ 

This weekend’s focus on live TV sports events tips off on the basketball court as the NBA continues its second round playoff games with a Saturday telecast on ABC (Utah Jazz-L.A. Clippers) and two telecasts on Sunday (ABC’s Brooklyn Nets-Milwaukee Bucks and TNT’s Phoenix Suns-Denver Nuggets.)   

On the ice, NBC Sunday will telecast Game 1 of the New York Islanders-Tampa Bay Lightning NHL Conference Finals series while continuing its Olympics trials coverage  Saturday with a primetime telecast of the diving competition. 

Fox will offer Saturday night baseball coverage between the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will feature the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. 

ESPN Plus will distribute Saturday’s UFC 263 pay-per-view fight card headed by the Israel Adesanya-Marvin Vettori middleweight championship rematch fight. ESPN will also step into the boxing ring Saturday with primetime coverage of the super featherweight fight between Shakur Stevenson and Jeremiah Nakathila.

NBC will offer Saturday morning coverage of the French Open tennis tournament’s women’s finals match as well as Sunday morning action from the men’s finals match. 

Major League Baseball Thursday threw a post-season fastball prior to the first pitch of its truncated 2020 season, announcing that it is expanding the league’s playoff teams to 16 from eight.

The league, which Thursday launched its 60-game regular season three months after its scheduled start due to the coronavirus pandemic, will expand its playoff teams to include the champions and the second place finishers in each of the six divisions, as well as two wild card teams and two teams with the best record among the rest of the league, according to MLB officials.

League owners and the Major League Players Association hammered out the deal prior to the New York Yankees-Washington Nationals opening day game.

“This season will be a sprint to a new format that will allow more fans to experience playoff baseball,” said baseball commissioner Robert Manfred in a statement. 

In addition ESPN announced it will televise seven of the eight new first round series -- including exclusively all four National League first round series -- across a four-day period from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.

“This is an exciting opportunity for ESPN and Major League Baseball to deliver a new, compelling live sports experience to fans. Innovation has been a cornerstone of our 30-plus year relationship with MLB, and that will be on display as we showcase these decisive games,” said Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN president and co-chair, Disney Media Networks in a statement. “We know fans have been craving live baseball and we’re proud to work with our friends at MLB to offer what will be a special four days this fall.” 

The National Hockey League Tuesday became the first of the major sports leagues to outline its return to play during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a NBCSN televised address that 24 of the league’s 31 teams will return to the ice sometime in July for training camps, although no specific date was announced for an official start to the playoff tournament, according to Bettman. 

The league pulled the plug on the 2019-20 season on March 12 due the pandemic. Bettman added that the league has heard from fans "in overwhelming numbers" that they want to see a resolution of the season. 

The playoff tournament will be played in two hub cities --- one for Eastern Conference games and the other for Western conference contests. Among the cities being considered are Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Vancouver, according to the league.

Bettman said the games will be played with limited  personnel from each team going to the hub cities. He also said the league will not go ahead with plans if health of the players and NHL staff cannot be adequately protected. 

The NFL will maintain its postseason format for the 2015 season.

America’s top sports league has been contemplating adding two more playoff squads, one in each conference. New York Giants owner John Mara at the league’s meeting in Phoenix said he didn’t think anything would happen for this season.

Under the most-often-discussed scenario, 14 teams would make the postseason, and add a pair of games and presumably with expensive telecast rights.

Meanwhile, NFL owners voted to punt the blackout rules, under which a game not sold out didn’t air within the attendant DMA. There were no local blackouts during the 2014 regular season and only two blackouts in 2013.

Last September, the FCC unanimously voted to get rid of its so-called sports blackout rules.

Elsewhere, the league said on Monday that it would air the Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars game from London on Oct. 26 worldwide on a digital platform. That was something NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had mentioned during his state of the league address at Super Bowl XLIX.

Kicking off at 9:30 a.m. (ET), Bills-Jaguars will not be available on DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket package, but will still aired on TV in the two participating clubs’ local markets.

Distribution specifics were not disclosed, but reports indicate the game will be put up for bid, which could bring Google, its YouTube platform, and Facebook into the game. 

It’s been almost seven months since the Seattle Seahawks demolished the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII, a lifetime for the millions who call pro football their favorite sport and have made National Football League games the most popular TV programming in America.

For those who prefer the collegiate brand of ball, the wait has been even longer: Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston led Florida State on a last-second drive to beat Auburn 34-31 on Jan. 6 and end the Southeastern Conference’s reign as the sport’s champion at seven seasons.

Whether you prefer the pros, the ascendant collegiate game or devote much of your fall and winter weekends to football of any stripe, fresh seasons of pigskin play are about to unfurl in stadiums, living rooms and taverns near you.

New rights deals have already irrevocably altered the TV landscape. College kingpin ESPN has plunked down $470 million per year over 12 years — a total of $5.6 billion — for the rights to a new playoff system that will see four teams vie in semifinal meetings before the winners collide in a game that could draw the largest audience in cable history.

And NFL rights have jumped more than 60% on average. ESPN will present its first-ever NFL playoff game, a Wild Card contest, part of a package for which it will pay $15.2 billion over eight years, or $1.9 billion annually. That’s up from $1.1 billion under the pact that expired with the 2013 season. The playoff game was worth a reported $100 million.

NBC, whose Sunday Night Football has led primetime in viewership the past three years, will sub out a Wild Card game for a divisional matchup. The Peacock, which will also get a chance to benefit from extra flex scheduling early — a pair of games between weeks 5 and 10 can be switched — is now paying $950 million per year from 2014 to 2022, up from $650 million per season under the pact that ended last year.

NBC will culminate the football season with Super Bowl XLIX and a chance to tackle America’s top audience from Fox, which counted a record 111.5 million viewers, despite the Seahawks’ blowout of the Broncos.

After registering its most-viewed season ever in 2013 since it began airing the NFL back in 1994, Fox will see the price of its large-market National Football Conference package jump from $712.5 million to $1.1 billion under its new nineyear pact.

Sunday-afternoon brethren CBS averaged 18.7 million viewers last season, its second-best delivery since it has been airing the American Football Conference package. Black Rock, which will get a chance to augment its audience with a number of cross-flex games bringing NFC matches as means of generating greater overall exposure for the league, is now paying $1 billion per year over the next nine seasons, up from $550 million.

In what could be the biggest shakeup in the primetime landscape since cable started seriously eating into broadcast’s Nielsen ratings, CBS is also stepping onto the Thursday Night Football field.

For a reported $275 million in rights fees, the nation’s most-viewed network will air games during the first half of the season that will be simulcast on NFL Network. The back end of the schedule will feature games produced by CBS that will air on NFL Network and broadcast stations in the participating teams’ home markets.

The NFL is looking to gauge just how big a player it can become on one of TV’s most-watched nights of the week and one favored by Madison Avenue and its studio, auto and retail clients. For CBS, whose comedy lineup has been the dominant force on Thursday for years, it means returning TV’s top sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, to its original Mondaynight roots until late October. That could widen its audience advantage overall and give it a leg up on other bidders should the NFL elect to make this hybrid scheduling format a fixture, or it could offer the entire TNF package to a broadcast network.

Meanwhile, despite repeated proclamations from DirecTV that it expects to retain the “NFL Sunday Ticket” out-of-market package, the satellite-TV leader and the league have yet to renew their deal, which is about to enter the final year under which DirecTV pays $1 billion annually. AT&T reportedly has an out clause in its proposed merger with DirecTV if the satellite-TV provider fails to retain the Ticket.

The league is expanding multiscreen options for fans, Brian Rolapp, NFL Media executive vice president, said. NFL Red Zone, the Sunday-afternoon ad hoc scoring and highlights service, is still growing, adding 20 new providers since January. It enters the 2014 campaign with 250 affiliates.

Accessible across Internet-connected devices, new service NFL Now enables users to identify their favorite team, fantasy players and video content preferences. The plan calls for content to personalize each user’s viewing experience to deliver a customizable news, analysis and highlights offering for NFL fans around the globe. Additionally, NFL Now will provide users with access to a vault of on-demand pro-football video content available anywhere.

NFL Now Plus ups the ante — for $1.99 per month, subscribers can check out instant in-game highlights, plus gain access to the complete NFL Films library, including NFL Network staples America’s Game and A Football Life.

And as part of a reported four-year $1 billion renewal, Verizon’s NFL Mobile package will broaden this season, with subscribers gaining access to more streaming content including in-market games on Sunday afternoon.