WNBA hopes to cash in on rising popularity with media rights reevaluation after 2028 season

The WNBA’s new media rights deal includes a price reevaluation after the 2028 season to account for the league’s rising popularity, according to people familiar with the agreement.

The WNBA deal has been negotiated within a broader $77 billion NBA agreement with media partners announced earlier this week. The WNBA-specific contract is worth $2.2 billion for 11 seasons — an average of $200 million per year.

The new trio of NBA partners — Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon — didn’t assign specific values to the WNBA as part of their initial bids for packages of games (worth $2.6 billion, $2.5 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively), according to the people familiar, who asked not to speak publicly because the details are private.

Instead, the NBA worked with Endeavor Group’s media consulting team, led by Karen Brodkin and Hillary Mandel, to assess the value of WNBA rights, said the people. Endeavor’s recommendation valued the rights at about $125 million per year, said the people.

The NBA pushed to get more money for the women’s league, given the infusion of interest driven by star rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and ultimately convinced its media partners to allocate an average of $200 million per year for the league, according to the people.

Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon have agreed to reassess that value after the 2028 season, the people said, with the $200 million-per-year cost serving as a floor value for the league’s rights.

The league will again work with a third party to assess a possible increase in rights, based on TV ratings, expansion and possible changes to the length of the regular season or playoffs, said the people. The media partners aren’t forced to pay more based on the conclusion of the reevaluation, but they will be incentivized to do so, the people said.

A little more than halfway through its current season, the WNBA has already had 16 nationally televised games break the 1 million viewership mark — a league record.

“To open the season we have seen our highest attendance in 26 years and repeatedly set viewership records,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert last week. “A lot of our teams are up triple digits in attendance.”

The WNBA will also have a chance to raise additional revenue by striking outside partnerships with other media companies, including local broadcast station groups such as Scripps and Ion, and participating in an advertising revenue share if certain metrics are hit, according to people familiar with the deal constructs. The outside media deals could bring in another $60 million in annual revenue, the league estimates.

— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo and Jess Golden contributed to this report.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

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