WNBA inks groundbreaking 11-year media-rights deal worth $2.2BILLION giving stars Caitlin Clark and A’Ja Wilson a MASSIVE new platform.
The WNBA has another tentpole moment in its rise, inking a groundbreaking 11-year media-rights deal worth $2.2billion.
This will give the league’s biggest stars such as A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Sabrina Ionescu a bigger platform and more nationally televised, games.
The silver lining to the deal, which begins for the 2026 season, is that the league is open to signing other media-rights deals beyond this agreement.
The WNBA inked with the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and NBC Universal.
More than 125 of the league’s regular-season games will be broadcast between the league’s new media-rights partners.
The WNBA has inked a groundbreaking media-rights deal worth around $2.2billion
Players like Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson will now have a bigger platform for their games
As is common with media-rights deals, companies to reevaluate the deals, meaning the WNBA could earn more than $2.2billion from this deal down the road.
That will be especially true with the current growth of the league, on the backs of players like Clark.
‘Partnering with Disney, Amazon and NBCU marks a monumental chapter in WNBA history and clearly demonstrates the significant rise in value and the historic level of interest in women’s basketball,’ said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert via news release.
‘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,’ Engelbert continued.
This media-rights deal will expire in 2036 but will likely be renegotiated to last beyond the 11-years already agreed to.
As part of the media-rights deals, Disney platforms will continue to telecast all events from WNBA All-Star weekend, including the All-Star Game, and the WNBA Draft, while Prime Video will continue to stream the Championship Game of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Prime Video Channels will be the global channels store destination for WNBA League Pass, the WNBA’s subscription service for streaming live and on-demand games.
Angel Reese’s Painful Realization About Her ‘Problem’ After Chicago Sky Loss.
Angel Reese secured WNBA history on Sunday, but that wasn’t enough to put a smile on the rookie’s face.
The Chicago Sky suffered their sixth straight loss of the season, falling to the Minnesota Lynx 79-74.
Reese racked up her 418th rebound of the season against Minnesota, after recording 17 points and 19 boards in the game. She became the No. 1 player in total rebounds in a single WNBA season, passing league legend Sylvia Fowles who had 404 for the record.
Following the game, Reese spoke about the WNBA record. She mentioned that she needs to give herself more credit for achieving the feat, but right now, she’s not focused on individual accolades.
“I really don’t give myself grace,” Reese said. “That’s probably another problem. Just being able to think about the next game. I don’t know the individual accolades that I get… When we start winning, okay cool, congrats Angel.
Winning is the No. 1 priority for Reese and the Sky at this point. The rookie has explained that it’s incredible to achieve the things she’s been able to accomplish but even went as far as saying she has to improve as a player.
While she’s a phenomenal rebounder, Reese made it clear that she has to impact the game on other levels for the Sky to be victorious.
“I just wanna focus on winning right now,” Reese said. “I just can’t be rebounding. It has to be more.”
From the naked eye, it seems Reese has had a successful season in terms of scoring and rebounding.
She went into the matchup against the Lynx averaging 13.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game. Reese is the only rookie averaging a double-double, and she leads the league in average rebounds.
The problem with Reese has been in the efficiency category. She’s shooting 38.6% from the field despite most of her attempts coming within 10 feet of the basket.
Reese seems to realize that she needs to improve in other areas of the game in order to help her stock rise even more.
