Women’s Soccer News: Takeaways From new NWSL TV Deal

The National Women’s Soccer League announced a significant new television deal with CBS on Wednesday, changing both the way fans can view the league and providing stability for a vital revenue stream of the NWSL as the league enters its eighth season.

The details: CBS will broadcast two matches — the league opener on April 18 and the league championship — while CBS Sports Network will air another 14, and 71 more can be found on CBS All Access, the network’s subscriber streaming service.

The league is also streaming 24 matches on Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming service known for its popular e-sports broadcasts.

“The NWSL is elated to partner with CBS Sports and Twitch, two incredible media companies with a proven track record of award-winning coverage,” Lisa Baird, Commissioner of the NWSL, said Wednesday. “This new media-rights agreement is a watershed moment for women’s soccer in the U.S. and around the world and is the first time NWSL matches will be available to such a wide audience. We are excited to work with CBS with its rich history, tradition and storied innovation to utilize the power of their multiple platforms to reach more fans. We also are eager to team up with Twitch to showcase the brightest stars in the sport. These partnerships will continue to amplify the NWSL and its teams on a national and international stage.”

So what are the biggest takeaways from this new deal? Let’s break it down.

No more annual wondering

For much of the NWSL’s history, how and even whether games would be available on television was an open question. So the league would make a deal with, for instance, Fox Sports or ESPN, often during the season itself, and a handful of games would end up broadcast. No habit-building, no momentum, and then the same process would repeat.

The league’s multi-year deal with A&E promised something different, but for a variety of reasons, NWSL never really found its audience there. At CBS, though, a place where many other sports can be found and there’s a long history of broadcasting, the results are likely to be different. And the multi-year agreement gives both sides time to get it right. CBS is also working hard at increasing the audience of CBS All Access, with other shows like the forthcoming “Tooning Out The News” headed there, from Stephen Colbert. The opportunities for cross-promotion here are significant, and should help both sides.

The price of access

It is an unfortunate aspect of this new deal that the overwhelming majority of NWSL matches are going to require fans to pony up some money — $5.99 a month, or $59.99 a year — though hopefully some aspect of the All Access subscriber growth gets directed back into NWSL coffers. This isn’t that different from the league-run WNBA League Pass for the women’s basketball league, really, except whether these broadcasts are ultimately put together by CBS, or some other entity, remains unclear.

Even so, the downside is a lack of easy access for new, casual fans to pick up the NWSL. Then again, this is the battle every developing league fights: how much to monetize against making its product more widely available. Was putting the NWSL on Youtube with strict limitations (seriously, ask anyone who watched) on the quality of the broadcast a better move? Hard to see that from this vantage point.

Twitch also promises “additional league and player-related content and original programming opportunities” for NWSL. How much, and how well they do it will go a long way toward determining how much value the league gets out of placing 24 of its matches on the streaming platform.

Venues matter

Sky Blue FC plays its home matches at Red Bull Arena now, the Washington Spirit play many of theirs at Audi Field. In related news, the opener, at Audi Field, was selected to be the CBS match. And two of the CBS Sports Network matches are at Red Bull Arena, along with numerous CBS All Access games.

Changing how that looks on television, even the logistics of how a broadcaster can present the matches, have everything to do with this decision. It’s an area in which the growth of the league in other ways has dovetailed, even driven, how it can expand its broadcast reach.