The WNBA is not just generating big ratings. Viewers are paying attention to the games, shoulder programming and the sponsors that support them, according to new data from TVision.

The Caitlin Clark effect has been well known. College basketball’s all-time scoring leader, now a rookie for the Indiana Fever continues to draw viewers.

TVision found that with Clark in the lineup, viewers are paying more attention to Fever games than other WNBA games.

After analyzing viewer attention across 70 WNBA games across multiple TV networks between May 14 and July 21,, TVision found that its Attention to Visible Index–which measures how well viewers pay attention while in the room–for all WNBA games in the time-period was 101.  

Fever games scored a 107 in the index. This means that Indiana Fever Games delivered approximately 6% more attention for advertisers than typical WNBA games.  

The average performing television program scores a 100 on the Index. 

TVision also found that regardless of which teams were playing WNBA games on NBA TV and the E.W. Scripps Co.’s Ion network scored 107 on the index, with games on ESPN also outperforming the average with a 103 index.

That’s good for advertisers on Ion. 

TVision's Ad Attention metric measures the proportion of viewers who pay attention to at least two seconds of an ad. The average linear Ad Attention is 55%, but WNBA games on Ion delivered 62% Ad Attention, in the time period, TVision said.

TVision said that studies show that every 1% of attention correlates to a 1% increase in brand recall, suggesting WNBA games on Ion are a significant opportunity for advertisers to reach engaged viewers.

“More viewers are tuning in, and more importantly, those viewers are paying attention,” said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. “We have always thought, from the beginning of our relationship with the WNBA, that our broadcasts on Ion, including our studio shows, are great opportunities for advertisers to reach growing and highly engaged audiences.”

The WNBA returns to the court on Thursday (August 15) after a monthlong break for the Paris Summer Olympics, hoping to build on its strong first-half ratings numbers.

The season’s first half concluded on a viewership high note, with a record 16 games generating more than 1 million viewers, besting the 15 WNBA games garnering seven-figure viewership in 1998 — a number which included regular season and postseason games, according to SportsMedia Watch.

Also, the July 20 WNBA All-Star game, which pitted the U.S. women’s Olympic team against the WNBA All-Stars, averaged 3.4 million viewers on ABC, a record for a WNBA All-Star game and the third-biggest audience in league history, SportsMedia Watch said.

ESPN will air the New York Liberty-Los Angeles Sparks game tonight, one of four regular-season WNBA telecasts left across ESPN and ABC. ESPN VP of acquisitions Matt Kenny said that he expects the league viewership to remain hot as sports fans continue to follow the league’s emerging stars, such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, along with superstars A’Ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Breanna Stewart.

“I just think that sports fans gravitate toward rivalries and storylines,” he said. “Fans started to pay more attention, and when they did, they voted with their time, and they voted with their intention, and it's great to see. The numbers have been remarkable and I hope it continues.”

Along with ESPN and ABC, Ion will telecast Friday WNBA doubleheader games over the next five weeks beginning August 16, while NBA TV will air 19 games through the end of the regular season. Amazon Prime Video will stream six regular-season games beginning August 14.

CBS and CBS Sports Network will air a combined seven WNBA regular season games, beginning with an August 17 CBS doubleheader featuring the Minnesota Lynx-Washington Mystics and New York Liberty-Las Vegas Aces games.  

NBCUniversal signed an 11-year, $2.5-billion-a-season deal with the NBA Wednesday that will see the league return to NBC for the first time since 2002, starting with the 2025-26 season. 

But the NBA isn't the only pro hoops league being restored to NBCU after what will have been a 23-year absence: The WNBA is coming back, too.

Also read: WNBA More Than Quadruples Its Current National TV Contract With 11-Year, $2.2 Billion Deal

The league made official on Wednesday's last week's New York Times report about the WNBA more than quadrupling its current $60-million-a-season national TV deal, with the league signing arrangements that will pay it more than $2.2 billion through the 2036-37 campaign. 

What the Times -- and most of us -- didn't know was that NBCU was part of that plan, along with newcomer Amazon, and incumbent Disney. 

Under the new agreements, these media partners will distribute more than 125 WNBA regular-season and playoff games nationally each season, including a minimum of 25 regular-season games on Disney platforms, 50 regular-season games on NBCU platforms and 30 regular-season games on Amazon Prime Video.  

Additionally, Disney and NBCU will distribute games in key international markets, and Prime Video will distribute games globally to more than 200 million Prime members worldwide.

“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 statement. 

Per NBCU, here are "highlights" from its upcoming NBA and WNBA contracts:

* 100 NBA national games each regular season across NBC and Peacock

* More NBA Playoff games each season on average than any other NBA media partner

* First-round playoff games presented by NBCUniversal will be exclusive in all markets (national and local)

* Approximately 50 Peacock-exclusive national regular-season and postseason NBA games, including national Monday night games and doubleheaders

* Six NBA Conference Finals series (every other year beginning with 2025-26 season)

* “NBA Tip-Off” doubleheader each season

* More than 50 WNBA regular-season and first-round playoff games each season across USA Network, Peacock, and NBC

* Three WNBA Finals series (2026, ’30, ‘34)

* WNBA Semi-Finals games in seven seasons (2026, ’28, ’30, ’31, ’32, ’34, ’36)

* NBA All-Star Game and star-studded competitions of All-Star Saturday Night each season on NBC and Peacock

* Select NBA games and every NBA All-Star Game on Telemundo

* USA Basketball men’s and women’s games

* The return of the iconic “Roundball Rock” theme music

The Caitlin Clark effect continues to boost women’s basketball, with viewership of the WNBA All-Star Game drawing 3.4 million viewers, up 305% from last year, according to Nielsen.

The All-Star Game featured a WNBA All-Star team, including rookies Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky, taking on Team USA, which is heading to Paris for the Olympics. Team WNBA won 117-109.

The game aired Saturday on ABC.

Since Clark set college basketball scoring records at Iowa and ratings records during the NCAA tournament, women’s basketball ratings have been on fire.

Also Read: WNBA More Than Quadruples Its Current National TV Contract With 11-Year, $2.2 Billion Deal

The top 10 most-viewed WNBA regular-season games to this point in 2024 have reached more than 17.8 million viewers, while the 10 most-viewed regular-season games in 2023 reached a total of 8.9 million viewers.

All 10 most-viewed games have featured the Fever and Clark, with two of those games also involving the Sky and Reese.

Viewership for the WNBA Draft increased 511% between 2024 and 2023 and was up 668% with female viewers ages 2-17. 

Season-to-date, viewership is up 240% among men in 2024 from the entire 2023 WNBA regular season. 

Currently riding a historic wave of popularity, the WNBA carved out a new national TV deal valued at more than $2.2 billion over 11 years, tipping off with the 2026 season.

The contract will pay the league an average of about $200 million a season, about four times as much as the current $50 million-a-season rate. (The deal was first reported by The New York Times sports news platform The Athletic.)

The Walt Disney Co., CBS, Amazon and Ion will remain WNBA broadcast partners, but the league has the options to add more partners going forward, potentially rendering the new deal as much as six times larger than the current agreement that expires with the 2025 season. 

The league can add two more rights packages under the new agreement, which could bring in an additional $60 million each season. 

Notably, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in April her goal was to merely double the league's current national TV deal. 

The deal was negotiated by the National Basketball Association on behalf of the WNBA.

On Tuesday, the NBA Board of Governors approved the NBA’s new 11-year, $76 billion national media rights deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon. However, the arrangements cannot be made official until clarity is worked out with the incumbent left out in the cold, Warner Bros. Discovery, which is still insisting it has the ability to match any competing deal.

WNBA Players Association president Terry Jackson released this statement: “We have wondered for months how the NBA would value the WNBA in its media rights deal. With a reportedly $75 billion deal on the table, the league is in control of its own destiny. More precisely, the NBA controls the destiny of the WNBA. We look forward to learning how the NBA arrived at a $200 million valuation — if initial reports are accurate or even close. Neither the NBA nor the WNBA can deny that in the last few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics, the players continue to demonstrate their commitment to building the brand, and that the fans keep showing up. There is no excuse to undervalue the WNBA again.”

The Los Angeles Sparks-Indiana Fever game on Friday featuring the top two WNBA draft picks, Caitlin Clark and Cameron Brink, was the most watched WNBA game on Ion.

The telecast averaged 724,000 viewers and peaked at 981,000 viewers, according to Nielsen..

As a record-setting college player, Clark has helped boost the visibility and popularity of women's sports on TV.

Scripps Sports added that the game was the most-watched WNBA game this season to tip-off after 8 p.m. 

The game marked a 62% improvement over the best household delivering from 2023 WNBA games on Ion and out-delivered all 2023 WNBA games on all markets in male demographic categories including men ages 21 and up.

Clark and the Fever will be taking on the Seattle Storm Thursday night on Amazon Prime Video.

ESPN2’s May 14 telecast of the opening-night Indiana Fever-Connecticut Sun WNBA game, featuring the pro debut of college basketball sensation Caitlin Clark, drew 2.1 million viewers — making it the most-watched WNBA game on cable ever.

The game, in which Clark scored 20 points in a losing effort, was also the most-watched WNBA game since NBC drew 2.4 million viewers for its Memorial Day 2001 telecast, according to SportsMedia Watch. 

The game was the third most watched live sports event Tuesday night behind TNT’s two NBA playoffs telecasts, including Game 5 of the Indiana Pacers-New York Knicks Eastern Conference semifinal (4.8 million viewers) and Game 5 of the Minnesota Timberwolves-Denver Nuggets Western Conference semifinal (4.5 million), according to SportsMedia Watch. 

Clark has been a major ratings draw for women’s basketball so far this year. ABC and ESPN set a women’s college basketball ratings record by drawing 18.9 million viewers for their simulcast of the April 7 NCAA championship game, in which Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes fell to the South Carolina Gamecocks. 

ESPN’s April 15 WNBA draft telecast featuring Clark, selected by the Fever with the first overall draft pick, averaged a record 2.4 million viewers.

Prime Video will stream Clark’s home opener on Thursday (May 16), as Indiana faces the New York Liberty. 

Tegna, which made a deal to broadcast 17 Indiana Fever games featuring top WNBA draft pick Caitlin Clark, said it made deals that will put the games on stations in 11 additional markets.

In addition to Tegna’s WOI Davenport, Iowa; WHAS Louisville, Kentucky; and WOI Des Moines, Iowa; the games will air on stations owned by Gray Television, Sinclair, Nexstar Media Group, Coastal Television Broadcasting Group and Weigel Broadcasting.

“This is a pivotal moment for our Fever team and women’s basketball, more broadly, and this groundbreaking partnership with Tegna will ensure more fans than ever will be able to watch this historic season,” Rick Fuson, CEO of Fever owner Pacers Sports and Entertainment, said.

With cord-cutting and the decline of the cable regional sports networks, broadcast stations have clamored to add sports to their lineups. Women's sports, including the WNBA, are also hot, boosted by the popularity of Clark. Some stations are airing the majority of a local team’s games, like in Phoenix, where the majority of Suns and Mercury games are on broadcast. In other markets, a smaller package of games are being broadcast. 

“We could not be more excited to make these exciting WNBA games available to more fans, in more homes, across more markets, including Caitlin Clark’s home state of Iowa,” said Brad Ramsey, senior VP, media operations at Tegna. “We are grateful to the Pacers organization, the WNBA and our broadcast partners for their trust and for helping us create a first-of-its-kind fan experience.”

The first game to be broadcast will be May 16 when the Fever plays the New York Liberty.

“This is a key moment for women’s sports and live sports on broadcast television. Continuing Gray’s commitment to live local sports,” added Sandy Breland, chief operating officer of Gray Television. “Gray is beyond excited to bring the Fever free, over the air to local viewers in Cincinnati, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lexington and South Bend.”

Here are the stations that will be airing Fever games this season:

• Indianapolis, Ind.: WTHR 13.1, 13.3 & WALV 46.1 (Tegna)
• Champaign-Springfield, Ill.: WCIX 49.1 & WCIA 3.1 (Nexstar)
• Cincinnati, Ohio: WXIX 19.3 (Gray Television)
• Davenport, Iowa: WQAD 8.1, 8.3 (Tegna)
• Dayton, Ohio: WKEF 22.3 (Sinclair)
• Des Moines, Iowa: WOI 5.1 & KCWI 23.1 (TEGNA)
• Evansville, Ind.: WFIE 14.2 (Gray Television)
• Fort Wayne, Ind.: WPTA 21.3 (Gray Television)
• Lafayette, Ind.: WPBY 35.1, 35.2 (Coastal Television Broadcasting Group)
• Lexington, Ky.: WKYT 27.2 (Gray Television)
• Louisville, Ky.: WHAS 11.1, 11.2 (Tegna)
• South Bend, Ind.: WCWW 25.1 & WMYS 69.1 (Weigel); WNDU 16.2 (Gray Television)

Scripps Sports said it plans to air a new studio show when a new season of WNBA Friday Night Spotlight starts May 24.

Ion will have a 30-minute pre-game show, with highlights from the week’s games, an analysis of player matchups and in-depth stories from around the league.

There will also be a halftime show and wrap-preview shows between games of a doubleheader.

The studio shows will be hosted by Larry Smith and feature analysts Autumn Johnson and Meghan McKeown. NIcloe Denne, senior director of content for scripps Sports, is the executive producer of Scripps Sports studio shows. 

“We are dedicated to showcasing the players who are driving the popularity of the WNBA, not just in our game coverage but with the features we will produce for our studio shows,” Quinn Pacini, VP of broadcast operations for Scripps Sports, said. “There are so many great stories to tell.”

The new season of the WNBA on Ion tips off May 14 and the first studio shows will air May 17.

No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark, the top scorer in college basketball history, will show up on Ion with the Indiana Fever on May 24. Clark will be playing against the Los Angeles Sparks and Cameron Brink, the No. 2 pick in the draft.

Top WNBA draft choice Caitlin Clark will appear on local broadcast for 17 games next season in a deal between Tegna and the Indiana Fever.

At a time when women’s sports — and women’s basketball in particular — are exploding in popularity with viewers and advertisers, Tegna’s WTHR, an NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, and WALV, that market’s MeTV affiliate, will offer a close look at Clark, the leading scorer in the history of college basketball.

“This is an exhilarating moment for women’s sports,” Tegna CEO Dave Lougee said. “The WNBA and Fever are leading the charge with this groundbreaking local broadcast rights agreement. The remarkable journey of Caitlin Clark and her teammates has captured the hearts and minds of millions. We’re thrilled to deliver all the Fever action to every household in the Indianapolis region.”

Tegna said it will be working with additional broadcasters to bring Clark and the Fever to more local markets in Indiana’s TV territory.

“So many new fans are tuning in to watch the world’s best basketball players compete in the WNBA, and the Fever have built a roster of incredible young talent that has caught the attention of basketball fans all over the globe,” said Rick Fuson, CEO of Pacers Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Fever and its NBA sibling, the Indiana Pacers. “Tegna and WTHR have been amazing local partners for years, and we are excited that more fans than ever before will get the chance to watch these amazing athletes play.”

Also Read: Scripps Wants Women’s Sports Boom To Boost Ion 

With the collapse of the regional sports network business, a number of teams have signed up to put games on broadcast — either the majority, like the Phoenix Suns and Mercury in Phoenix — or a handful of games, like the Milwaukee Bucks.

Broadcasters are promising team owners and leagues they’ll reach more fans over the air than through cable, even though regional sports network deals in the past have been more lucrative.

“We’re delighted to build on our strong marketing partnership with the Pacers and Fever and our longstanding commitment to local Indianapolis sports,” WTHR general manager Michael Brouder said. “Our station has always been at the center of the biggest local events that capture the spirit of Hoosiers far and wide. Our entire team in front of and behind the camera will be helping the Fever connect with our community and fans like never before.”

The deal between the Fever and Tegna was brokered and negotiated by Dan Granik and David Sternberg of Range Sports, a division of Range Media Partners, long-time consultants to Pacers Sports & Entertainment.

The following games will be shown for free over the air:

• May 16 vs. New York, 7 p.m. WTHR
• May 22 at Seattle, 10 p.m. WTHR
• May 25 at Las Vegas, 9 p.m. WTHR
• May 30 vs. Seattle, 7 p.m. WTHR
• June 1 vs. Chicago, 1 p.m. WALV
• June 10 at Connecticut, 7 p.m. WTHR
• June 13 vs. Atlanta, 7 p.m. WTHR
• July 10 vs. Washington, Noon WTHR
• August 24 at Minnesota, 8 p.m. WALV
• August 26 at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. WTHR
• August 28 vs. Connecticut, 7 p.m. WALV
• September 1 at Dallas, 4 p.m. WALV
• September 4 vs. Los Angeles, 7 p.m. WALV
• September 8 vs. Atlanta, 4 p.m. WTHR
• September 11 vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m. WALV
• September 15 vs. Dallas, 3 p.m. WALV
• September 19 at Washington, 7 p.m. WTHR

* All times ET

A star-studded class of women’s college basketball players led by Caitlin Clark helped ESPN draw a record audience for Monday’s live WNBA Draft telecast.

The event averaged 2.4 million viewers, blowing away the 572,000 viewers for ESPN’s 2023 telecast and surpassing the former WNBA Draft record of 601,000 viewers set in 2004, according to Nielsen numbers published by Sports Media Watch. The draft featured Iowa Hawkeyes star Clark, whom the Indiana Fever selected with the first overall pick.

The draft also featured college hoops standouts Cameron Brink, selected by the Los Angeles Sparks at No. 2, Kamilla Cardoso, selected third by the Chicago Sky, and Angel Reese, selected seventh by the Sky.

The record WNBA draft numbers come on the heels of a record-setting 18.9 million viewers who tuned into the April 7 NCAA women’s college basketball title game, where the South Carolina Gamecocks defeated Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes.

With Iowa star player Caitlin Clark having declared her intention to enter the WNBA draft after leading women's basketball to previously unimaginable TV ratings heights, the league and its broadcast partner, ESPN, are making plans or what could finally be a breakout season. 

On Wednesday, the WNBA and ESPN announced that the league’s 28th regular season, set to tip off May 14, will include at least 25 nationally presented games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.

Factoring in 27 potential postseason games — pending how long individual playoff series go — the 2024 WNBA season, presented in sponsorship collaboration with Google, could feature up to 52 games.

In addition, the WNBA All-Star Game, sponsored by AT&T, will air in primetime on ABC from Phoenix (8:30 p.m. ET on July 20) for the second consecutive year.

Each of the league's 12 teams will be shown nationally this year, with some teams appearing up to eight times. 

Notable: The Indiana Fever have the No. 1 selection in Monday's 2024 WNBA Draft, a State Farm-sponsored event that will be shown live on ESPN staring at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Fever will almost undoubtedly pick Clark, the top all-time scorer among both men's and women's college hoops. 

Not surprisingly, the Fever — which already has WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston on its roster — will be one of the teams that appears on Disney-owned networks eight times. 

The season will tip off May 14 with a doubleheader, starting with the Fever visiting the Connecticut Sun for a 7:30 p.m. ET game. 

Later that night, the Las Vegas Aces — led by two-time Most Valuable Players A’ja Wilson and Candace Parker— will begin their quest to become the first WNBA team to win three consecutive titles in more than 20 years when they host the Brittney Griner-led Phoenix Mercury.

The game will be preceded by WNBA Countdown, which will feature coverage of the Aces’ championship ring ceremony and championship banner anveiling.

Following the conclusion of the 2024 regular season on Sept. 19, ESPN will once again collaborate with the WNBA to broadcast all playoff games. 

Amazon Prime Video said it signed a multiyear extension of its rights deal with the WNBA.

Under the deal, Prime Video will exclusively stream 21 WNBA games this season. 

That includes the championship game of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup presented by Coinbase. The 2023 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup attracted the largest audience for a WNBA game ever for Prime Video, nearly doubling the viewership of the 2022 contest.

Also Read: ESPN Hopes Strong Regular Season Gives WNBA Playoffs a Ratings Bounce

“We’re thrilled to continue bringing exclusive national coverage of the WNBA and highlighting these exceptional athletes to Prime members,” Prime Video head of sports partnerships Charlie Neiman said. “Following a successful 2023 season, we’re looking forward to reaching even more milestones with the WNBA and furthering our commitment to women’s sports.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We are incredibly pleased that Prime Video is making a meaningful and continued commitment to the WNBA and will once again provide a great platform to showcase the world-class athletes of our league across the regular season and particularly with its streaming of the Championship Game of the new, streamlined Commissioner’s Cup presented by Coinbase,” WNBA chief growth officer Colie Edison said.

Prime Video is among the streamers picking off rights to major sports leagues. Prime Video streams Thursday Night Football, the NWSL, the Seattle Storm, the New York Yankees, Overtime Elite, Premier Boxing Championships and the Professional Pickleball Association in the U.S.

Women’s sports are attracting more viewers, and according to research company EDO, commercials that air in women’s sporting events are growing in ad effectiveness.

EDO, which focuses on measuring the impact of ads on viewer behavior, said in a new report that ad effectiveness women’s tennis, basketball and other sports rose by double digits from last year.

Caitlin Clark, who set the record for most points by a college basketball player this month, also scored for insurer State Farm. The State Farm spots in which the Iowa sharpshooter appears are 46% more likely to generate engagement than the average State Farm ads.

“Naturally, the growing interest in women’s sports presents a major opportunity for TV advertisers,” said Laura Grover, senior VP, head of client solutions at EDO. “After all, live sports have consistently been the TV programs most successful at driving consumers to engage with brands that advertise during them — generating key outcomes like online searches that are proven predictors of future sales.”

The best-performing women’s sport was tennis, with Wimbledon and U.S. Open matches, which outperformed the average primetime broadcast and cable ad by just over 50%.

The WNBA’s ad engagement is growing rapidly. EDO found that in the regular season, engagement was up 7% from a year ago and during the playoffs it was up 23%. In the finals, there was a 30% jump. Brands aimed at men saw strong results advertising during WNBA games, with Bosley Hair Restoration sprouting engagement that was 341% higher than the average WNBA advertiser, Old Spice racking up results 134% higher and Hims registering 51% greater engagement.

Sportswear makers saw their engagement rise with ads featuring women athletes. Adidas’s ads were 69% higher, Puma saw a 62% lift, Nike gained 16% and Viori rose 8%

Tubi, Fox’s ad supported streaming platform, is diving into women’s sports with the documentary Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story.

Produced by Malka Media Group with the WNBA Players Association, the documentary looks at four current WNBA stars, Jonquel Jones, Nneka Ogwumike and Breanna Stewart, as well as WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes.

The documentary is presented by Puma with additional support from Crown Royal Regal Apple.

“Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story is a transcendent documentary that uniquely captures the power and spirit of female athletes,” said Anjali Sud, CEO at Tubi. “Tubi is proud to collaborate with the Women's National Basketball Players Association as part of our commitment to uplifting bold and inspiring voices for young and diverse audiences.” 

Directed by rising filmmaker Andrea Buccilla, a former college athlete and commercial director, the documentary features an all-women team in its development, production, and direction. 

The players also served as executive producers.

“Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story is more than a documentary – it's a movement,” said executive producer Terri Carmichael Jackson. “We're bringing to light the incredible stories of these athletes, who are not just sports icons but powerful advocates for change, respect, and inspiration – something that all women can relate to and feel empowered by.” 

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 live sports lineup for the penultimate weekend in September starts on the college football field with every Top 10 team in action on Saturday. 

Top-ranked Georgia will host UAB on ESPN2, second-ranked Michigan battles Rutgers on Big Ten Network, third-ranked Texas travels to Baylor on ABC, fourth-ranked Florida State takes on Clemson on ABC, and fifth-ranked USC travels to Arizona State on Fox. 

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will lead his 19th-ranked Buffaloes into Oregon to take on the 10th-ranked Ducks on ABC. The rest of the schedule featuring top-ranked teams include No. 6 Ohio State-No. 9 Notre Dame (NBC), No. 7 Penn State-Iowa (CBS) and No. 8 Washington-California (ESPN).

On the basketball court, the second round of the WNBA playoffs begins Sunday with the Connecticut Sun-New York Liberty contest on ESPN and the Dallas Wings–Las Vegas Aces games on ESPN2.

Week three of the NFL season continues on Sunday afternoon with regional action on CBS and Fox. NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast features an AFC matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders. 

On the racetrack, USA Network on Saturday will air the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race, while on Sunday, ESPN will televise the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix race, and USA Network will air the NASCAR Cup AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 contest. 

In the boxing ring, ESPN Plus on Saturday will feature a WBO heavyweight interim title fight between champion Zhilei Zhang and Joe Joyce, while DAZN offers a main event bout between junior welterweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepaeda. 

On the soccer field, Peacock, USA and NBC will combine to offer 10 English Premier League games throughout the weekend, while Apple TV and FS1 televise two Sunday MLS contests.

On the baseball diamond, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will air from Los Angeles as the Dodgers play their National League rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

This weekend’s list of live sports events starts on the pro football field as the NFL enters its second weekend of action. 

NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast will feature an AFC East matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, while CBS and Fox will offer Sunday afternoon regional game action.  

Week 3 of the college football schedule begins with top-ranked Georgia facing South Carolina on CBS, second-ranked Michigan taking on Bowling Green on Big Ten Network, third-ranked Florida State playing Boston College on ABC and fourth-ranked Texas battling Wyoming on Longhorn Network.

Other top-ranked teams in action include No. 6 Ohio State-Western Kentucky (Fox), No. 7 Penn State-Illinois (Fox), No. 8 Washington-Michigan State (Peacock), No. 9 Notre Dame-Central Michigan (Peacock), and No. 10 Alabama-South Florida (ABC). 

The WNBA playoffs continue on Sunday with a pair of first-round games, including game two of the Connecticut Sun-Minnesota Lynx (on ESPN) and the Dallas Wings-Atlanta Dream (ABC) series. On the soccer field, USA, Peacock and NBC will team to offer nine live Premier League games.

On the racetrack, USA Network on Saturday will air the NASCAR Cup Bristol Night Race, while on Sunday, ESPN will televise the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. Also Sunday, NBC will televise the IMSA Battle of the Bricks race.               

Prime Video tonight (August 15) will stream the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty as the streaming service continues to offer live game content from the league.

The WNBA's in-season tournament championship contest, which Prime Video has streamed since the game's debut in 2021, matches the two WNBA teams with the best record based on percentage of games designated for Cup play in each conference, according to the league. The Aces will look to win its second straight championship after defeating the Chicago Sky last year.

Players on the winning team will have the opportunity to earn more than $30,000 each while players on the runner-up team will have the opportunity to earn as much as $10,000 each, according to the league. All participating players will receive $5,000 in cryptocurrency from the game’s sponsor, Coinbase.

Prime Video will once again pair Michael Grady and Sarah Kustok to handle play-by-play and analyst duties for the game, with former NBA All-Star Baron Davis contributing as an analyst and Zora Stephenson handling sideline responsibilities for the Championship contest.

After the Commissioner’s Cup, Prime Video will stream five additional regular-season WNBA games through mid-September, beginning with an August 17 Liberty-Aces rematch, according to the streaming service.

The NBA for the first time will offer its own version of the Commissioner’s Cup with an in-season tournament beginning in November.

This weekend’s lineup of live sports events starts on the tennis court with the Wimbledon tennis tournament men’s and women’s finals.

ESPN on Saturday morning will air the women’s finals match between Ons Jabeur and Arnya Sabalenka. On Sunday morning, the network will air the men’s finals match between the winners of Friday’s Jannik Sinner-Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz-Daniil Medvedev semi-final matches. 

On the basketball court, ABC on Saturday will televise the WNBA’s annual All-Star Game from Las Vegas.

In the boxing ring, Showtime will televise a Saturday primetime lightweight main event fight between Frank Martin and Artem Harutyunyan. In the octagon, ESPN will offer a UFC Fight Night women’s bantamweight bout between Holly Holm and Mayra Bueno Silva.  

On the links, CBS and Golf Channel will air weekend coverage of the DP World Tour Scottish Open. 

USA Network on Sunday will rev up its coverage of the NASCAR Cup Crayon 301 auto race, while Peacock streams the IndyCar Series Indy Toronto event.

Peacock on Sunday will also stream its weekly MLB Sunday Leadoff game featuring the San Francisco Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game will pit the Houston Astros against the Los Angeles Angels. 

On the soccer field, FS1 Sunday will air live the Concacaf Gold Cup finals match between Mexico and Panama.

The E.W. Scripps Co., which is pushing into the sports business, said it signed State Farm as the title sponsor of its upcoming WNBA Friday NIght Spotlight on Ion.

Scripps and the WNBA announced in April that WNBA games would appear in primetime on  Friday nights on Ion. The first games air Friday. 

State Farm has had a 10-year relationship with the WNBA, going back to 2013, when it became presenting partner of the WNBA Draft. 

“State Farm is a longtime supporter and sponsor of the WNBA,” said Kristyn Cook, chief agency, sales and marketing officer, State Farm. “We are constantly looking for ways to elevate women in sports, and WNBA Friday Night Showcase on Ion will bring the excitement of women’s basketball to even more people.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“State Farm has set the pace once again as we partner to raise the WNBA’s profile,” said Tony Lamerato, VP of revenue and sponsorships for Scripps Sports. “They are the perfect fit to title our new Friday night franchise on Ion.” 

Amazon Prime Video’s WNBA schedule starts Thursday, May 25, with the Phoenix Mercury facing off against the Minnesota Lynx. The game tips off at 10 p.m. ET and Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months in a Russian prison, plays for Phoenix. Prime Video has 20 WNBA games this season, including five doubleheaders and the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. 

Each team has 10 games that are considered Commissioner’s Cup games. The team from each conference with the best record in Cup play will face off for the Commissioner’s Cup championship. 

After the May 25 game, the Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx play on Prime June 1 and Las Vegas Aces and Connecticut Sun face off June 8. On June 15, it’s the Atlanta Dream versus Connecticut Sun, then Seattle Storm versus Las Vegas Aces. 

One June 22, the Washington Mystics play the Chicago Sky, and Indiana Fever take on the Seattle Storm. 

June 29, New York Liberty plays Las Vegas Aces, and July 6 is Seattle versus Connecticut. July 20, the Los Angeles Sparks play the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces take on the Seattle Storm. 

July 27 features the Atlanta Dream versus New York Liberty, and August 3 is Atlanta versus Phoenix. On August 10, it’s Minnesota versus Indiana, then Conneciticut versus Phoenix. 

August 15 is the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. August 17 features New York versus Vegas and August 24 is New York versus Connecticut.

August 31 is Phoenix versus Connecticut then Washington versus Vegas.  

The schedule concludes September 7 with Los Angeles against New York. 

“We are excited to offer the action of the WNBA to Prime members on Thursdays this season, bringing them closer to the players and teams they love,” said Marie Donoghue, vice president of Global Sports Video at Amazon.  “Our investment in women’s sports extends beyond our live coverage, as we’re dedicated to highlighting storytelling about female athletes, and empowering female leadership in front of and behind the camera. We are thrilled to bring the excitement of women’s basketball to Prime Video again this season, and look forward to continuing to champion women’s sports.”

This weekend’s lineup of live tv sports events starts on the basketball court as the WNBA tips off its 2023 season.

The league, which is coming off a strong ratings run during its 2022 campaign and which welcomes back star Brittney Griner after her detention in a Russian prison, will feature two Saturday games on ABC pitting the Atlanta Dream against the Dallas Wings, and the defending league champions Las Vegas Aces against the Seattle Storm.    

In the NBA, ABC will air Game 3 of the Western Conference championship between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers, with Denver up two games to none in the series. On Sunday, TNT will air Game 3 of the Boston Celtics-Miami Heat Eastern Conference championship series.

On the ice, TNT will televise Game 2 of the Florida Panthers-Carolina Hurricanes NHL Eastern Conference Finals while ABC on Sunday will air Game 2 of the Dallas Stars-Vegas Golden Knights Western Conference Finals. 

In the boxing ring, ESPN Plus Saturday will distribute a pay-per-view card headlined by the Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko undisputed lightweight championship fight. ESPN Plus will also distribute a Saturday UFC Fight Night card featuring a main event women’s strawweight bout between Mackenzie Dern and Angela Hill. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock on Sunday will stream the New York Yankees-Cincinnati Reds game, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will pit  the Cleveland Indians against the New York Mets. 

ESPN and CBS will offer final round weekend coverage of the PGA Championship golf tournament, while Fox on Sunday will air the Professional Bowlers Association’s Super Slam Cup tournament. 

On the football field, week six of the USFL season kicks off Saturday with USA Network's telecast of the Pittsburgh Maulers-Memphis Showboats game while Fox airs the Birmingham Stallions-Michigan Panthers matchup. Sunday’s action includes FS1’s New Orleans Breakers-Philadelphia Stars telecast and Fox’s New Jersey Generals-Houston Gamblers game. 

On the track, NBC on Saturday will air The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. 

After landing a deal to broadcast WNBA games Friday nights nationally on Ion, E.W. Scripps is looking for more sports leagues and teams to put on its national networks and local stations.

“If we found another league that was the right fit and intersected so well with the demographics that we have on Ion, there’s room for more,” Scripps CEO Adam Symson told Broadcasting+Cable.

“But we’re not looking for partnerships with any sports,” he added. “Clearly, the WNBA is a premier league and that’s what we set out to do was make partnerships with premier partners of the highest kind.”

Scripps is also monitoring the regional sports network situation. Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Bally Sports RSNs are in bankruptcy and not paying some teams for rights. Major League Baseball could take TV rights back from Bally Sports parent Diamond Sports Group early next month.

Also Read: Bally Sports Bankruptcy: Judge Tells Diamond To Pay Half of What It Owes to MLB Clubs, Pending Restructure

“MLB has the whole situation well in hand,“ Symson said. ”We’ve obviously had conversations with the folks in distribution with every major league that has been dependent on the RSN business. Where we think there’s a fit with our local footprint and league or a series of teams, we’re absolutely ready to do a deal.”

Historically, sports rights have been costly and getting increasingly expensive. That’s one reason the RSNs are under pressure. 

Symson declined to provide details of Scripps’s financial arrangement with the WNBA.

“From the very beginning we’ve been clear that we were going to be taking a disciplined approach to sports rights,” he said. “We recognize that we bring something very special to the table with the reach. I think the WNBA recognizes that, and we’ve created a partnership in which both parties will benefit economically.”

He said the WNBA will be handling production of the games airing on Ion.

New Model for Sports

“I do think that the sports marketplace for the most part is ready for a new model,” Symson said. “We brought a different kind of model to the marketplace when we are speaking with leagues and teams, and our message is resonating. We bring unparalleled reach and they are seeking to connect with as many fans as possible, especially in this environment of fragmentation.”

The WNBA deal came just four months after Scripps established its Scripps Sports division, announcing it was looking to do deals with leagues and teams looking for the reach broadcast can provide while cord-cutting erodes the number of viewers subscribing to pay TV.

More viewers are turning to streaming, particularly for the scripted dramas and comedies that used to draw big ratings on network television.

“Our strategy rests on the fact that live sports and live news are two of the most important content genres for linear television,” Symson said.

Symson did not seem surprised that a deal got done so quickly. “Ion is a compelling platform in terms of reach,” he said. “We could tell when we launched Scripps Sports, based on the number of inbounds that we were getting, that there was a high level of interest in tapping that reach.”

Ion’s Wide Reach

Acquired by Scripps in 2020, Ion reaches 79 million pay TV consumers, plus 103 connected TV households and 34 million over-the-air households, Symson said. “The 103 million connected TV and the 34 million OTA homes aren’t reached by the cable programmers,“ he said. “You can see why a league like the WNBA, which has significant ambitions for continued growth, would want to partner with a platform like Ion and Scripps Sports.”

Symson said it was important to make a deal with a strategic partner that was a good fit for Ion. Women’s sports fills the bill, according to Symson, because of Ion’s large audience of women. Ion ranks No. 3 among cable networks among women 18-49, excluding news.

The Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin pay-per-view boxing match punches up the list of live TV sports events airing this weekend. 

The DAZN and PPV.com-distributed fight card will pit WBC, WBA WBO and IBF super middleweight champion Alvarez against former champion Golovkin for the third time in the last five years. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a combined 2.4 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. The Alvarez-Golovkin PPV bout retails at a suggested price of $84.99. 

The WNBA Finals continue Sunday with game-four of the Connecticut Sun-Las Vegas Aces. The Aces travel to Connecticut leading two games to one and hoping to close out the best-of-five series.

On the football field, the second week of the NFL season kicks off with Sunday afternoon regional coverage on Fox and CBS. NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast will feature a matchup between NFL North division rivals Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. 

On the college football front, ESPN will offer coverage of top-ranked Georgia’s game against South Carolina, while the SEC Network will telecast second-rank Alabama’s matchup against UL Monroe. In other games, Fox will air third-rank Ohio State-Toledo, ABC will deliver fourth-ranked Michigan-UConn and ACC Network will feature fifth-ranked Clemson-Louisiana Tech. 

The remaining games featuring top 10-ranked schools include No. 6 Oklahoma-Nebraska (Fox), no. 7 USC-Fresno State (Fox), No. 8 Oklahoma State-Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Big 12 Network), No. 9 Kentucky-Youngstown State (SEC Network) and No. 10 Arkansas-Missouri State (ESPN Plus).

Streaming service ESPN Plus will offer a UFC Fight Night card on Saturday featuring a main event bout between bantamweights Cory Sandhagen and Song Yadong. 

The Premier League returns to action with USA Network and NBC airing five live games across Saturday and Sunday.

As the Major League Baseball season winds down, ESPN on Sunday will televise the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants as part of its Sunday Night Baseball telecast. ■  

This weekend’s busy lineup of live TV sports events begins on the gridiron as the National Football League kicks off its opening weekend of regular season games. 

Along with Sunday regional coverage of NFL games on CBS and Fox, NBC will air its first Sunday Night Football game featuring two of the league’s more popular teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys.

This weekend’s college football schedule begins with top ranked Alabama facing Texas on Fox and second-ranked Georgia taking on Samford on SEC Network. Third-ranked Ohio State will match up with Arkansas State on the Big Ten Network, fourth-ranked Michigan battling Hawai’i on Big Ten Network and fifth-ranked Clemson going up against Furman on the ACC Network.

The rest of the top ten ranked teams include No. 6 Texas A&M-Appalachian State (ESPN2), No. 7 Oklahoma-Kent State (ESPN Plus), No. 8 Notre Dame-Marshall (NBC), No. 9 Baylor-BYU (ESPN) and No. 10 USC at Stanford (ABC).

In the octagon, ESPN Plus will distribute the UFC 279 mixed martial arts pay-per-view event featuring the main event bout between welterweights Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz. 

The U.S. Open tennis tournament will conclude this weekend with the women’s finals match airing on ESPN Saturday and the men’s finals airing live Sunday afternoon.

The Major League Baseball season continues to wind down with ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball coverage of the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs contest.■ 

Amazon Prime Video will kick off its exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football package on September 15 when the Los Angeles Chargers meet the Kansas City Chiefs. The regular-season schedule highlights the streaming service's growing lineup of live sports programming.

But TNF, which premiered on August 25 with an exclusive Houston Texans-San Francisco 49ers preseason game, is just part of a mix of live sports events the streaming service hopes to use to lure in fans. The Prime Video lineup also includes regular-season WNBA basketball games, mixed martial arts events from One Championship and exclusive in-market New York Yankees baseball games and Seattle Storm WNBA games.  

Amazon VP of global sports video Marie Donoghue recently spoke to Multichannel News about Prime Video’s live sports aspirations and what the genre adds to the overall value of the streaming service. Here’s an edited transcript of that discussion. 

MCN: How do you see live sports programming fitting into the overall value proposition for Prime Video? 

Marie Donoghue: As you know, Prime is a membership benefit, and so live marquee sports is what we call a headline benefit. We have the NFL — probably the most popular sport in the U.S. — with our Thursday Night Football deal, which we’re really, really excited to launch this season with our first game on September 15. It’s a massive investment for us and we've based it on our track record working with the NFL over the last several years, as well as the experience we've had in Europe. We've been showing top-tier sports for several years with the Premier League in the U.K. and the Champions League in Italy and Germany, Ligue 1 in France and the U.S. Open tennis tournament in the U.K. We know for sure that top marquee sports programming really resonates with our customers, so it's become an essential part of our service in several countries. 

MCN: What drew Prime Video to the WNBA and how has it performed for the streaming service?

MD: We’re huge fans of the WNBA, and overall we saw increased viewership this season for the WNBA. Last year they were developing the Commissioner’s Cup (the WNBA's mid-season tournament), so we thought it would be an awesome opportunity to serve our fans. I think fans really liked it because you get to see the top teams compete.

MCN: Along with the NFL and WNBA, Prime Video has also streamed live local games for such teams as the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and MLS’s Seattle Sounders FC. Is that a strategy that you will look to continue with other teams in other sports? 

MD: Yes, we look at everything. We always consider whether there is a way for us to improve the experience, the accessibility and the value for fans. We found with the Sounders, the Yankees and the Storm that that was all true. We were able to reach an audience that isn't reached by the traditional pay TV bundle, and we've also been able to provide great value to our subscribers — you get the games with your Prime membership. 

MCN: Prime Video has also stepped into the combat-sports ring with One Championship. Does that franchise offer a different sports appeal to Prime Video subscribers than the WNBA or NFL fotball? 

MD: One Championship is the world’s largest martial arts organization, and we’re bringing them live in primetime to the U.S. and Canada exclusively. They are primarily based out of Singapore, but next year we’ll have some events from the US. Those fans are incredibly passionate and engaged and the One Championship organization is fairly unique, and I’m particularly pleased that they treat female athletes equally. We’re really excited about working with them. ■

This weekend’s lineup of live TV sports action starts on the baseball diamond as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox continue their longtime rivalry.

On Saturday night Fox will televise the Yankees-Red Sox game from Fenway Park, while ESPN on Sunday will air the rubber game of the series as part of its Sunday Night Baseball presentation.

Also from the baseball diamond, Peacock on Sunday will stream the San Diego Padres-Washington Nationals game.

In the boxing ring, ESPN on Saturday will televise the Teofimo Lopez-Pedro Campa junior welterweight fight, while in the octagon ESPN will air the Marlon Vera-Dominick Cruz UFC bantamweight fight.

On the links NBC and Golf Channel will offer final round coverage of the PGA St. Jude Championship golf championship, while on the soccer field USA, NBC and Peacock will air a combined nine Premier League games over the weekend.

ABC will offer a Sunday WNBA doubleheader telecast featuring the Minnesota Lynx-Connecticut Sun and the Seattle Storm-Las Vegas Aces games. ■  

The launch of the 2022-23 Premier League soccer season kicks off the lineup of live TV sports events slated for the first weekend of August. 

NBC Sports will mark its 10th year of Premier League coverage with eight live games on streaming service Peacock over the weekend, while USA Network will provide live coverage of the Chelsea-Everton matchup. 

Also on the soccer field, ABC on Saturday will air MLS action featuring Seattle at Atlanta, while Fox will televise the Dallas-Portland contest. 

On the links, USA Network and NBC will offer final round coverage of the LPGA British Open while CBS and the Golf Channel televise weekend coverage of the PGA Wyndham Championship.

ESPN will enter the octagon Saturday night for a UFC Fight Night telecast featuring a main event bout between light heavyweights Thiago Santos and Jamahal Hill. 

Peacock’s Sunday afternoon baseball game will feature an American League battle between the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Guardians, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will showcase National League West rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. 

ABC will hit the hardwood Sunday with WNBA doubleheader action, beginning with the Connecticut Sun-Chicago Sky contest, followed by the Las Vegas Aces-Seattle Storm game.■ 

Amazon Prime Video is hoping its live coverage of the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup Championship game tonight (July 26) continues to build on the streaming service’s appeal to sports fans through quality, live sports content, according to Amazon VP of global sports video Marie Donoghue.

The Commissioner’s Cup, an in-season tournament that matches the two WNBA teams with the best record based on percentage of games designated for Cup play in each conference, debuted last year with the Seattle Storm defeating the Connecticut Sun. This season’s matchup pits defending WNBA champion Chicago Sky against the Las Vegas Aces. The winning team receives a $500,000 prize, according to the league. 

Donoghue said last year’s inaugural event drew strong viewership for the streaming service, although she would not reveal specific numbers. She said the exclusive rights to the game came out of Prime Video’s multi-year deal with the league to air 16 WNBA games per season reached in 2021.

“We thought it was an awesome opportunity for us to serve our fans with the Commissioner's Cup,” said Donoghue told Multichannel News. “We were pleased with last year’s viewership — we generated a lot of positive feedback from viewers. We’re especially excited to have it come back for the second year.” 

Donoghue said Prime is working with the YES Network — the two have already teamed to exclusively stream 21 New York Yankees games this season — to stream the Commissioner's Cup championship game. YES Network on-air talent Sarah Kustok and Michael Grady will serve as analyst and play-by-play announcer for the event.

Also serving on the Commissioner's Cup broadcast team is former WNBA All-star Dawn Staley, who said the game provides a major boost to the WNBA. “I think the Commissioner’s Cup … makes regular-season games meaningful,” said Staley, the head women’s basketball coach for South Carolina, the NCAA champions. “If you're really good, it affords you an opportunity to win two championships.” 

Donoghue said the game along with Prime Video’s remaining WNBA telecasts helps the streaming service take sports fans into the late summer and its exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football package.

“We're really, really excited to launch the Thursday Night Football package with our preseason games in August, and then our first regular season on September 15,” she said. “It's a massive investment for us, and we’ve based it on our track record working with the NFL over the last several years.” ▪️

The weekend’s live sports TV lineup starts on the greens as NBC, Peacock and USA Network offer Saturday and Sunday coverage of The 150th Open Championship, also known as the British Open. While golf legend Tiger Woods did not make the tournament cut, other players such as Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Young will vie this weekend for top honors. 

USA Network will continue its weekend coverage of the Tour de France cycling tournament, while USA and NBC will offer weekend coverage of the USATF World Track and Field Championships =. 

On the soccer field, ABC, FS1 and ESPN on Sunday will air live MLS matches, and ESPN2 will air a UEFA European Women's Championship soccer match between Switzerland and the Netherlands. 

On the WNBA front, CBSSN on Saturday will televise the Chicago Sky-Dallas Wings game, while on Sunday ABC will televise the Las Vegas Aces-Connecticut Sun match and CBSSN will air the Indiana Fever-Seattle Storm contest.

Streaming service Peacock will offer a Sunday afternoon baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays. 

In the squared ring, DAZN on Saturday will offer a pay-per-view event featuring lightweights Ryan Garcia and Javier Fortuna. In the octagon, ABC on Saturday will televise a UFC Fight Night mixed martial arts card featuring a main event bout between featherweights Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriquez. ▪️

The July 4 holiday weekend slate of live TV sports events begins on the football field as the upstart USFL concludes its inaugural season with its Championship Game between the Birmingham Stallions and Philadelphia Stars.

Also on tap for the weekend is WNBA action as ESPN televises the Phoenix Mercury-Chicago Sky contest on Saturday as well as Sunday’s Washington Mystics-Connecticut Sun contest. Also on Sunday, NBA TV will air the Seattle Storm-Atlanta Dream game and CBSSN will televise the New York Liberty-Los Angeles Sparks game.

On the links, CBS and the Golf Channel will offer coverage of the final rounds of the John Deere Classic PGA tournament.

On the racetrack, NBC Sunday will air the Honda Indy 200 IndyCar Series race, while USA Network will televise the NASCAR Cup Series Kwik Trip 250 race and ESPN covers the British Grand Prix Formula One race.

ESPN Plus on Saturday will distribute the UFC 276 pay-per-view bout between Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier.

ESPN will continue its Wimbledon tennis tournament coverage throughout the three-day holiday weekend. On Monday, ESPNNews will telecast live the annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Peacock’s Sunday afternoon baseball game will feature the Kansas City Royals against the Detroit Tigers, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball matchup pits the St. Louis Cardinals against the Philadelphia Phillies.

NBC, Peacock and USA Network on Saturday will offer live coverage of the Tour de France cycling event, with USA and Peacock offering third-round coverage on Sunday.

MLB Network will offer a full day of Independence Day baseball games featuring five regional telecasts scheduled to begin as early as 11 a.m., according to the network. ■

A new film, We Are the W, is set to have its debut Tuesday before a WNBA doubleheader on NBA TV.

The film features three players at different stages of their careers. Angel McCoughtry is already certified as one of the W25, the 25 greatest and most influential players in WNBA history. Isabelle Harrison of the Dallas Wings is in the middle of her career. Didi Richards of the New York Liberty is a rookie in the league.

The players are shown off the court, focusing on their roles as daughters, sisters, scholars, athletes, leaders, activists and survivors, the WNBA said.

We Are the W was directed by Shibon Kennedy and Katie McCurdy, who have been directed projects for Apple, Nike, Puma, and Adidas previously. 

Cousins, female-led production studio, served as the production partner for the film after producing works for Kehinde Wiley, Lifetime, PBS, and short films for ESPN and Nike.

We Are The W will air Tuesday, June 21 on NBA TV at 6:30 p.m. ET leading into the NBA TV doubleheader with the Atlanta Dream hosting the Dallas Wings followed by the Minnesota Lynx visiting the Phoenix Mercury. The film will also be available on WNBA League Pass starting Tuesday. ■

The Indianapolis 500 revs up the lineup of TV sports events airing over the Memorial Day weekend.

NBC on Sunday will televise the 106th running of the venerable auto race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year’s event will be highlighted by the appearance of NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson, who will compete in the IndyCar race for the first time.

Also on Sunday, Fox will televise the NASCAR Cup Coca-Cola 600 race, while ESPN airs the Formula One: Monaco Grand Prix race.

In the ring, Showtime on Saturday will distribute a pay-per-view boxing card headlined by the Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero lightweight championship fight. 

Also: Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin Trilogy Bout Set for September; Showtime Laces up for Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero Fight 

On the ice, the NHL Playoffs continue Saturday on ESPN as the Carolina Panthers look to close out the New York Rangers in game 6 of their second-round Eastern Conference Playoff series.

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast originates from New York as the Mets host the Philadelphia Phillies. Peacock’s Sunday-morning baseball game features the Cincinnati Reds hosting the San Francisco Giants.

On the links, NBC and the Golf Channel will air final round coverage of the Senior PGA Championship, while CBS and Golf Channel will offer weekend coverage of the PGA Charles Schwab Challenge. On the tennis court, NBC and Tennis Channel will provide weekend coverage of the French Open.

ABC on Saturday will offer WNBA coverage as the Las Vegas Aces meet the Chicago Sky, while CBS on Sunday will televise the Phoenix Mercury-Atlanta Dream game.  

The USFL heads into its seventh week with three weekend games, including Saturday’s New Jersey Generals-Tampa Bay Bandits (USA Network) and New Orleans Breakers-Michigan Panthers (FS1) contests, as well as Sunday’s Birmingham Stallions-Pittsburgh Maulers (Fox) game. ■

The weekend TV sports lineup for the Mother’s Day holiday weekend starts on the pro basketball court with second round coverage of the NBA Playoffs. 

On Saturday, ABC will offer game three coverage of the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks series, followed by primetime coverage of the Memphis Grizzlies-Golden State Warriors game three contest. 

On Sunday, ESPN will televise game four of the Phoenix Suns-Dallas Mavericks series, followed by TNT game four coverage of the Miami Heat-Philadelphia 76’ers series. 

The WNBA opens the first weekend of its 2022 regular season with two matchups on Saturday – ESPN’s Connecticut Sun-New York Liberty and CBSSN’s Atlanta Dream-Dallas Wings telecasts – as well as a Sunday ESPN doubleheader featuring the Washington Mystics-Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm-Las Vegas Aces games.

On Saturday, the NHL playoffs continue with first round coverage of the Florida Panthers-Washington Capitals series on ESPN, followed by a TNT tripleheader that includes the Colorado Avalanche-Nashville Predators, NY Rangers-Pittsburgh Penguins and Calgary Flames-Dallas Stars series. 

NBC on Saturday will televise live the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs in Louisville. Also Saturday, the National Women’s Soccer League will hold its Challenge Cup final between the Washington Spirit and the North Carolina Courage, which will air live on CBS. 

In the octagon, ESPN Plus will stream the UFC 274 pay-per-view fight card featuring the main event match between lightweights Charles Oliveria and Justin Gaethje. In the ring, DAZN and PPV.com will offer the Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol light heavyweight championship fight. 

Also: Digital Sportsplay: In Demand Punches Up Streaming Pay-Per-View Service

On the links, CBS and Golf Channel will televise the final rounds of the PGA Wells Fargo Championship pro golf event. On the bowling lanes, Fox on Sunday will televise the semifinal round of the KIA PBA Playoffs.

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast features National League rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Chicago Cubs. ■ 

The live TV sports schedule for the last weekend of September starts on the baseball diamond as the race for the playoff heats up with only one week left in the regular season. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball will telecast the game between bitter rivals the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox as they battle for an American League wild card playoff berth. 

In other sports NBC and Golf Channel will provide weekend coverage of pro golf’s Ryder Cup tournament. NBCSN will offer tripleheader Premier League soccer action on Saturday, while FS1 and ESPN air Major League Soccer telecasts on Sunday.

Week three of the NFL continues Sunday with regional action from Fox and CBS Sunday afternoon along with NBC’s Sunday Night Football game coverage between NFC rivals Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49’ers.

The WNBA playoffs continue on ABC with the Phoenix Mercury traveling to Seattle to meet the defending WNBA champion Storm. 

National broadcast and cable networks will carry college football games from nine of the top 10 ranked teams in action as the season enters its fourth week. The SEC Network’s cameras will follow top-ranked Alabama as the team travels to play Southern Miss, as well as second ranked Georgia as it plays Vanderbilt.

ESPN will air third ranked Oregon’s game against rival Oregon, ABC will televise No. 4 Oklahoma against West Virginia and FS1 will carry No.5 Iowa versus Colorado State. The rest of the games include No. 6 Penn State-Villanova (Big Ten Network), No. 7 Texas A&M-No. 16 Arkansas (CBS), No. 9 Clemson-NC State (ESPN) and No. 10 Ohio State-Akron (Big Ten Network). 

ESPN Plus will distribute the UFC 266 pay-per-view fight card featuring a main event match between featherweights Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega. 

This weekend’s list of television sports events begins with college football as every top 10-ranked team is playing on a national broadcast or cable television network this Saturday.

CBS will air top-ranked Alabama’s game against 11-ranked Florida, while ESPN will televise second-ranked Georgia’s battle against South Carolina. Other games include third-ranked Oklahoma against Nebraska (Fox), No. 4 Oregon against Stony Brook (Pac-12 Network), No. 5 Iowa-Kent State (Big Ten Network), No. 6 Clemson vs Georgia Tech (ABC), No. 7 Texas A&M-New Mexico (SEC Network), No. 8 Cincinnati-Indiana, (ESPN) No. 9 Ohio State-Tulsa (FS1), and No. 10 Penn State-No. 22 Auburn (ABC).

On the soccer field, USA Network on Saturday will offer a Premier League contest between Southampton and Manchester City, while NBC showcases the Everton-Aston Villa match. Sunday’s action includes MLS games on ESPN (Orlando at Philadelphia) and FS1 (LAFC and Portland.)

Fox on Sunday will provide coverage of the NHRA DeWalt Carolina Nationals drag racing event, while NBC will offer IndyCar action with coverage of the Grand Prix of Monterey.

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game will feature two teams in the playoff hunt as the Philadelphia Phillies travel to New York to play the Mets. 

Week two of the NFL season will feature Sunday afternoon regional game action on CBS and Fox, while NBC’s Sunday Night Football game will showcase the Kansas City Chiefs against the Baltimore Ravens. 

Read Also: Nickelodeon Kicks Off 'NFL Slimetime' Series

ABC on Sunday will mark the end of the WNBA’s regular season with an afternoon telecast of the Las Vegas Aces-Phoenix Mercury game. 

Adding to its reach into television sports, Amazon has acquired the global rights to stream 16 WNBA regular season games per season on Amazon Prime Video.

The multi-year deal also includes the Commission’s Cup Championship game, the culmination of a 10-game in season competition that will be held Aug. 12.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Traditional TV viewing has been shrinking in part as viewers move to streaming. First, scripted programming began appearing on streaming services including Amazon Prime Video. Now sports, seen as a key pillar for the pay-TV business, are migrating to streaming.

Earlier this year, Amazon made a deal with the powerful National Football League for exclusive rights to the Thursday Night Football package currently broadcast by Fox. It made a deal with Fox to move up the start of its exclusive telecasts to the 2022 season. 

The NFL’s deal also puts games on Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock, Disney’s ESPN Plus and ViacomCBS’s Paramount Plus.

Amazon also has deals to stream soccer and tennis matches in different countries around the world.

“The WNBA is one of the premier professional sports leagues in the world and serves as an inspiration to millions of young and aspiring athletes everywhere,” said Marie Donoghue, VP of global sports video at Amazon. “I am delighted we are bringing these outstanding athletes and games to Prime Video.”

The first WNBA game on Amazon will tip off May 29, with the Atlanta Dream playing the New York Liberty. Amazon will air one game each week during the regular season. Nine of the games will be part of the Commissioner’s Cup.

“Innovative competitions require exceptional partners, and we’re thrilled that Amazon will be streaming a WNBA game of the week and our inaugural Commissioner’s Cup Championship this year,” said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “We’re grateful for Amazon’s support in increasing visibility and expanding access to our fans to more games on more devices, and we’re honored to be the first professional basketball league streamed on Prime Video as part of a Prime membership.”

The WNBA on Prime Video will be available across hundreds of compatible devices worldwide as part of a Prime membership excluding China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Finland, and Germany.

Prime Video games will be distributed in the participating teams’ markets through the teams’ local distribution partners.

 ESPN Films and along with WNBA All-Star player Chiney Ogwumike will examine the WNBA’s unprecedented 2020 season as part of a new documentary, 144, premiering May 13.

The documentary will look at how the league created a single site at the IMG Academy in Florida to conduct their 2020 season after the pandemic shut down sports last spring. The show explores what the 144 WNBA players who played during the season had to overcome, including COVID-19, the the demands of social justice activism, and the rigors of an unrelenting schedule, said the network.

Ogwumike, who serves as executive producer of 144, said in a statement: "Developing this documentary about my sisters in the WNBA and the powerful 2020 season has been an honor. 144 amplifies the story of how our league helped create unprecedented social change while redefining how we see strong female athletes compete at the highest level. It is a privilege to showcase the 144 in their vulnerability letting cameras behind-the-scenes, their dedication to social impact, and their strength in navigating through one of the most challenging seasons we have ever had."

Read also: ESPN  to Air 'Daily Wager' Alternate NBA Telecast 

The National Basketball Association will look to resume its post-season this weekend after postponing games Wednesday night in protest of the Aug. 23 police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, according to ESPN.com

It’s unclear when playoff games  will resume -- the league has three games scheduled Thursday night -- but players met Thursday morning in Orlando where the games are being played and voted to  continue its post-season schedule, ESPN reported.  

The website also reported a second meeting is scheduled Thursday afternoon to formulate action plans to address racial injustice issues and iron out details of restarting the postseason, with games airing on ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBATV.  

Along with the three postseason NBA games, three Major League Baseball games, three WNBA games and five Major League Soccer games were postponed Wednesday night in protest  over the Blake shooting. 

The WNBA will be the next league to begin play amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a shortened regular season beginning in July.

Under the current plan, teams will report to Florida’s IMG Academy in early July and a 22-game regular-season will tip off in late July without fans after a team training camp period, according to league officials. Regular season matchups and times will be announced at a later date, with ESPN, NBA TV and CBS Sports Network telecasting live games.

“We are finalizing a season start plan to build on the tremendous momentum generated in the league during the off-season and have used the guiding principles of health and safety of players and essential staff to establish necessary and extensive protocols,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a statement. “We will continue to consult with medical experts and public health officials as well as players, team owners and other stakeholders as we move forward with our execution plan.”

The WNBA follows soccer’s Premier League and the NWSL -- as well as the NHL and NBA -- in announcing a return to live play over the next two months.

The announcement also comes as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN Monday night that he’s “not 100% confident” that the league would play in 2020 after the players and league owners failed to come to an agreement over finances and safety protocols for a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It’s just a disaster for our game ... it's important that we find a way to get past it and get the game back on the field for the benefit of our fans,” Manfred said during ESPN’s The Return of Sports special.

ESPN this weekend will televise a new NBA H.O.R.S.E shooting tournament featuring NBA and WNBA players, the network said Thursday.

The NBA Horse Challenge Presented by State Farm will pit eight NBA and WNBA players in a skills competition in which participants will match shots against one another in a single-elimination competition from their respective, isolated home courts. The first rounds will launch April 12 on ESPN and the ESPN App, with the final rounds airing on April 16, said the network.

Participating current and former NBA players include Chris Paul, Trae Young, Zach LaVine, Paul Pierce, Chauncey Billups and Mike Conley Jr.. WNBA players include Tamika Catchings and Allie Quigley.

Players must describe each shot attempt, specifying the type of score they intend to make before taking a shot, such as a bank shot or swish. Dunking is prohibited. The first player in each game to accumulate the letters “H-O-R-S-E” after failing to match five shots is eliminated, according to ESPN.

State Farm will donate more than $200,000 on behalf of the participants to charities focused on coronavirus response efforts, said ESPN. 

The White House clearly recognizes professional wrestling as a body slamming, turnbuckle-buckling force to be reckoned with. 

In a telephone call with what the White House characterized as "commissioners of major league sports," the President included Vince McMahon, president of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).

That was alongside Gary Bettman, commissioner of the NHL; Cathy Engelber, commissioner of the WNBA; Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL; Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA; Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA and others. 

Related: ESPN to Air Classic Wrestlemania Events 

According to the White House, Trump discussed the league's approaches to the "all-America" response to COVID-19, while the commissioners "thanked President Trump for his national leadership and for his interest in the sports industry." 

Trump's relationship with McMahon dates back to at least the 1980s, when Wrestlemania was held in Atlantic City. Trump even once helped shave McMahon's head as part of a Wrestlemania stunt.  

The President also named McMahon's wife, Linda, head of the Small Business Administration, though she has departed that post. 

According to reports, Trump told the NFL in the call he hoped it would start its season on time. No word on whether he pushed WWE to get those big bodies back in the squared circle. 

CBS Sports has secured rights to Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) as part of a multi-year agreement between the two parties announced Monday.

The deal calls for CBS Sports Network to air 40 live WNBA games in primetime and on weekends, beginning May 25 with Minnesota Lynx-Chicago Sky telecast, according to network officials. 

ESPN, NBA TV and Twitter will continue to carry WNBA games alongside CBS Sports, according to the league. 

“We are truly excited to partner with the WNBA, bringing the country’s premier women’s sports league to CBS Sports Network,” CBS Sports chairman said in a statement. "This partnership is one of the biggest and most impactful women’s sports programming arrangements ever at CBS Sports, offering national exposure of 40 games per year.

"This agreement provides great live content throughout the summer in primetime and on weekends, and aligns two great brands in the WNBA and CBS Sports," he added. "We look forward to working with the WNBA for many years to come.”

The Time’s Up advocacy group has named WNBA president Lisa Borders as its first-ever president and CEO of the organization.

Borders will lead the organization’s work to ensure equal opportunity and to ensure protection for all working women as Time’s Up seizes this unprecedented moment and transforms it into meaningful and institutionalized change across culture, companies and laws. according to the organization.

In taking the Time’s Up appointment, Borders will leave her current position as WNBA president and CEO after three years of service where she was responsible to overseeing the day-to-day operations of the league. Prior to the WNBA, Borders was vice president of global community affairs at The Coca-Cola Company and chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation.

RELATED: Borders helps WNBA Step Up its Business Game

“With Lisa’s skills and leadership, Time’s Up is now in the best position to achieve what we all started – to create a more positive future for workplace culture and a more powerful network for working women of all kinds,” said Shonda Rhimes, CEO of Shondaland, seed founder of TIME’S UP and member of the TIME’S UP president and CEO search committee in a statement.

Borders added: “Time’s Up is both a natural extension and a bold advancement of the work I have been doing for the last four decades. I’m honored to have this opportunity to combine my experience working across all three sectors, as real, systemic change will require collaboration from each of these arenas. To disrupt and reinvent the ingrained status quo, we will need all hands-on deck to create and sustain enduring change. I’m thrilled to lead Time’s Up and I am convinced that together, we will shift the paradigm of workplace culture.”

ESPN will livestream 11 regular-season WNBA games during the league's current season, the network announced Thursday (May 25).

The package of livestreamed games, which will appear on the ESPN app, will launch next Tuesday (May 30) with the Indiana Fever-Dallas Wings game. Future live game streams will feature such teams as the San Antonio Stars, the Seattle Storm, the Chicago Sky and the New York Liberty, network officials said. 

The WNBA-ESPN streaming deal comes on the heels of a three-year streaming deal reached last week between the WNBA and Twitter.

 The ESPN/WNBA streaming schedule is as follows:

DateGame

May 30                Indiana at Dallas

June 6                  Seattle at San Antonio

June 13                Atlanta at Seattle

June 23                Connecticut at New York

                           Chicago at Atlanta

                           Dallas at San Antonio

June 29                New York at Washington

July 25                 Chicago at Connecticut

                           Phoenix at Atlanta

                           Indiana at Dallas

Aug. 10                San Antonio at Chicago

TNT will let former pro basketball players suit up to handle commentary roles for the network’s new Monday night lineup of live NBA game telecasts beginning next month.

The Players Only 10-game package of games airing over five consecutive Monday nights beginning Feb. 27 will feature ex NBA and WNBA players in traditional play-by-play, studio host and reporter positions, according to network officials. The play-by-play lineup for the doubleheader telecasts will include former players Brent Barry, Derek Fisher and Grant Hill for one game and Kevin McHale, Richard Hamilton and Greg Anthony for the second telecast.

Former WNBA star Lisa Leslie and ex-NBA player Dennis Scott will be featured as sideline reporters during the games. In-studio coverage of the games will be anchored by Chris Webber, Isiah Thomas and Baron Davis, according to the network.

“Our new Players Only franchise will allow us to provide a unique and compelling narrative surrounding the game through the distinct perspective and collective experiences of the former NBA player,” said Craig Barry, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, Turner Sports in a statement.  “We believe this original approach will offer deeper insights into the game, both on and off the court, along with broader access that will be entertaining for our passionate fans.”

TNT’s Players Only game schedule is as follows:

As the buzzer sounded on the Los Angeles Sparks’ Women’s National Basketball Association championship- clinching win over the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday, Oct. 20, the league also closed the books on its celebratory 20th season — one of the most successful in its history.

Heading into its 20th season in 2016, the WNBA — the women’s professional basketball league backed by the popular men’s National Basketball Association — has had a mixed bag of success. From a business perspective, the league has expanded from eight teams during its launch in 1996 to its current 12 franchises and has secured a long-term television deal with ESPN and a long-term collective bargaining agreement between players and team ownership.

It has also struggled to build awareness for the league, its teams and its collection of world-class women athletes, including Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi.

Yet under the tutelage of freshman president Lisa Borders, the New York-based league this past season drew more than 1.5 million fans to its games, its highest attendance since 2011, according to the league.

From a viewership perspective, the league posted an 11% gain in viewers on ESPN and ESPN2 during the season while increasing female viewing by 25% and its young male audience by 17%, according to network officials.

“We were there from day one from the first tip and they have evolved tremendously over the past 20 years — the growth has been excited for us to see,” Carol Stiff, ESPN’s vice president of women’s sports programming, said. “They’re still very young — 20 years is not long. Title IX [which spurred investment in women’s sports in schools] has only been part of our culture for 40 to 45 years. I’m excited to be able to showcase the athleticism and storylines from the league ... we look forward to working with them for another 20 plus years.”

The future does seem bright for the league. The WNBA set social-media records for usage, generating 530 million impressions and over 50 million video views, securing the league’s position among young, media-savvy sports fans who are enthusiastic about talking up the franchise. Borders spoke with MCN programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the league’s 20-year start and provided a sneak peek into what’s in store for the league going forward, including potential team expansion plans.

Related:How Jamie Horowitz, our other Sports Brand Executive of the Year, is building FS1 with opinionated personalities

MCN:When you stepped into the role as WNBA president at the beginning of the league’s 20th season, what were your thoughts on where the league was and what it had achieved up to that point?

Lisa Borders: Let me start by saying that having been a fan for 10 years and a season ticket holder [of the Atlanta Dream] that I understood the extraordinary play on the court. The game has evolved over 20 years and it is extraordinary. The fundamentals are sound — all 12 teams are incredibly talented. We’ve got 144 of the best athletes in the world, so in terms of the core product it was absolutely outstanding. It is not a secret that on the business side of our endeavor, we had some work to do. What we sought to do in the 20th season was to work on the business.

MCN:How did you think the league was perceived by folks on the outside, particularly fans and those who say that after 20 years the league should be further along with regards to its overall success and popularity — particularly given the popularity of the NBA? Did you listen to any of that criticism and do you think it was valid?

LB: Well, I hear it, but listening and hearing are two different things, just so you know.

[Laughs.] So if you hear something, that makes me think of rumors and innuendos and irrational thought. So when people talk without facts or without a rational basis, I tend to give less credence and credibility to those comments. When I have the opportunity to hear talk about our game and talk about our league from people who are deeply invested, who’ve spent time in the arenas, who understand who the teams are, I frankly give more credence there. So there’s good news and bad news. And it’s the same topic: awareness is where you have to start in any business. So the good news was people were aware. The bad news is, or was, people were not as aware as we needed them to be.

We play six months out of the year here in the U.S. and then many of our players play in the international market during the [off-season]. So folks know who we are but not as broadly or as deeply as we would like for them to. But I remind anyone that we are 20 years old — and that is remarkable, but we are 20 years old. That is still very young by professional sporting standards. If you look at the NBA, our big brother, it was born in 1946. We were born in 1996. So our big brother is 70. If you take this out of the vernacular of sports and just think about two people, one being 20 years old, one being 70 years old, the richness of their lives is very different but they are both human beings with two ears, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two legs. So you could say, those two people should be exactly the same because they’re both human. Well, that’s not true. You and I both know that a 20-year-old and a 70-year-old are not comparable people. The same thing is true of our league and our big brother, the NBA. They have been at it much longer. We applaud the NBA, they’re part of our family, but we are the younger sibling in the family. And it takes time to grow and get your footing and walk briskly before you run. So my response to people is, give us time to grow into the mature league that we know we’re going to grow into.

MCN:That’s a great way to transition into the performance of the league’s 20th season. What do you think was the overriding driving force for the success you saw?

LB: Well, let me just say there was no one silver bullet or one-panacea answer. It was a combination of many different approaches and strategies to our game and to our marketing and leveraging our game. It started with the “Watch Me Work” campaign, which really was a more integrated approach to how we marketed the WNBA. Typically, we have just marketed the league when the season starts in April with the draft and in May with tipoff. This year we started in January at an [NBA Cleveland Cavaliers] game and we unveiled what we called and continue to call the “Watch Me Work” campaign. That campaign ran throughout the preseason, through the season and into the post season. We’ve never done that before. But clearly, we have the platform to do it. In February, the NBA had its best and brightest in Toronto for the All-Star Game, so we also had our best and brightest there. On the sponsor side, we had folks like Adidas, which is are our apparel supplier and partner right now, roll out a special shoe for the 20th season. Spalding rolled out a special ball for the season. Verizon came on as a sponsor and we had new uniforms.

And then there was this little thing called the Olympics that happened in the middle of the season where both of our teams, men and women, won gold medals. That helped generate interest and excitement, and in the WNBA’s case, we supply all of the players for the national team. And those players came back with the U.S. women’s team’s sixth consecutive gold medal. That’s an extraordinary accomplishment by any measure.

MCN:The league also made several changes to the game itself. How did that play out it terms of building awareness and excitement for league games?

LB: We did two things to do with the technical components of the game. One was changing the offensive rebounding clock to 14 seconds rather than 24 seconds. Clearly that paid off in terms of pace of the game, but if you look at our statistics — for field goals with number of points scored, field goal percentages, assists — we have some of the highest statistics ever in the history of our game during this season. The same thing is true when you look at the playoff format, with single elimination in the first two rounds.

So those two changes to how we played the game had a dramatic impact on people getting excited about coming to the arenas and watching on ESPN and/or watching on League Pass, which also had extraordinary and record-breaking numbers from a subscription standpoint.

MCN:You started to talk a little bit earlier about the importance of social media. How big was that in terms of really developing the league’s brand?

LB: The social media aspect of our business was the brightest jewel in our crown of accomplishment. Clearly social media allows you to reach beyond any traditional fan or group of fans that you’ve ever had because it is ubiquitous. The Internet is everywhere and people are connected. In the case of watching our games or seeing content post-game, a highlight reel or a specific play or an exciting dunk, people have that opportunity to see that 24 by seven by 365. So what it allows you to do is to use our own democratized voice to serve as a distribution channel for the content that we are generating. Our players play and they do amazing things with the ball and with their bodies and with their teams and what we are doing is packaging it and sending it out another channel so that folks can consume it, of all ages, of all backgrounds, working on all time zones. It is not time-dependent in any way. It serves as not only a complement but a supplement to what’s done in traditional media but also what we are doing because, typically, the WNBA has had a website, like any business but that’s a static destination. What social media allows you to do is push that information to anyone to anyone who’s willing to receive it.

MCN:So now how do you build on the league’s success as you go into next season and beyond?

LB: Well, the things that are working, we will continue to do. So the marketing as a family of basketball properties — the NBA, the WNBA and the [NBA Development League] — we understand there’s opportunities to leverage all of our properties to the good of each of them individually, and to all of them collectively. Things that are working really, really well, like social media, we’re going to ramp them up. So not only will we share content about individual games and individual series of plays or individual series of games, now we will drill down further and begin to share information and content about our individual players. Because you and I both know, no one follows a league — they sometimes follow teams, but what they really follow are individual players to whom and with whom they can relate. We will leverage that content over time, not just talking about what our athletes do because what they do is play professional basketball. What fans want to know is who they are. And social media lends itself to that type distribution of information quite well. We will also invest heavily on spreading the word of the WNBA’s existence and its impact to date and where we aspire to go in the future.

MCN:What do you see as the biggest challenge for the league going forward?

LB: Well, I think always, in any business you are looking to be sustainable. So if someone is aware that you exist, then they have to pay attention once they realize you exist and they have to express a preference on whether they are interested in team one, team two, team three. And then they must exercise that preference … people have to engage and stay engaged.

So the challenge in this world, where you have so many opportunities to be entertained and so many opportunities to be distracted, is gaining a fan and holding on to him or her. That’s your greatest challenge. So whether you can get them in the arena or whether you can get them to watch on ESPN, or on League Pass, that is what makes our business go. We know that the source of our talent from the college ranks is solid. We’ve got great kids coming out every day. But fans come and fans go. So running the business in such a way that people are consistently entertained and want to be season ticket holders or even come up for a single game, that’s the greatest challenge for our business or anybody in the sports business.

SIDEBAR: Hail to the Chief

Career highlights of WNBA president Lisa Borders:

• Named as the fourth WNBA president on Feb. 10, succeeding Laurel J. Richie.

• Former VP of global community affairs for The Coca-Cola Co.

• Served as vice mayor of Atlanta and president of the Atlanta City Council from 2004-10, presiding over and maintaining relationships with the city government

• As head of the Atlanta City Council, she was instrumental in launching the Atlanta Dream WNBA franchise in 2008

SOURCE :Multichannel News research