Brands and Broadcasters Are Committing to Women's Sports

Wondering if women’s sports in the United States are actually winning? Just check the scoreboard. In November 2023, Deloitte predicted that revenue generated by U.S. women’s sports in 2024 would exceed $1 billion for the first time. The $1.28 billion estimate was 300% larger than the last time the company made such a prediction in 2021. The same month Deloitte made its forecast, the U.S. women’s sports media landscape shifted dramatically. The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) signed a $240 million, four-year media rights deal with Paramount’s CBS Sports, Amazon Prime Video, Disney’s ESPN and Scripps’ ION. At the time, it was the most lucrative broadcast contract in women’s sports history. Women's sports have been riding this long-building wave ever since. And data shows that fans are noticing brand and broadcaster support. With the increasing deals and expanded access, women's sports are on a winning streak. It's a big deal The NWSL deal was a turning point, as it was followed by league sponsorships from both Amazon and Google Pixel. And it caught the interest of investors. The NWSL’s Portland Thorns sold in January for $63 million, or $10 million more than the $53 million expansion fee the league charged its newest club, Bay Area FC. However, the biggest leap came in July, when Willow Bay, Dean of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, bought Los Angeles-based Angel City FC for $250 million—making it the most valuable women’s sports franchise in the world. Just after Angel City set its record, the NWSL’s basketball counterparts at the WNBA made an announcement of their own: the renewal of media rights partnerships with Amazon Prime Video and ESPN parent company Disney, as well as a new deal with NBCUniversal. The 11-year deals broadcast 125 WNBA games a year, expand WNBA League Pass services internationally through Amazon and allow it to pick up more media partners along the way. Those deals are valued at $2.2 billion—or roughly six times the value of the W’s current deal with ESPN—and might reach as much as $3 billion with additional partners (like current WNBA broadcaster ION). The wildest thing about those eye-popping numbers—which put the WNBA’s annual take at $200 million a year, or just $40 million less than the total value of the NWSL’s media deal—is they still seem low to the WNBA’s union and other observers, especially as fans flock to the games as they become more widely available. People want to watch women’s sports Women’s sports grow more quickly when fans can actually watch them. A report by research firm Bain & Company found that, when asked why people don’t engage with women’s sports as much as men’s, 40% blamed a lack of coverage. Another 30% said women’s sports were poorly marketed, while 27% said women’s sports broadcasts were too hard to find. “Discoverability and access [are] really important with respect to storytelling,” said Laura Correnti, partner at Giant Spoon and founder and CEO of Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment. “Not just on core or on field competition, but also the shoulder and ancillary programming that we believe the space is missing. That helps to move from reaching rabid fans to casual fans and hopefully new fans.” If women’s sports were more readily available, 40% of the general population and more than half of sports fans said they’d watch. The last year has proven this. Two billion people worldwide watched last year’s Women’s World Cup—80% more than the audience that watched the event in 2019, according to Bain's research. The 3.4 million viewers who watched the women’s U.S. Open tennis final was a 90% increase from a year earlier. Then there's women’s basketball. Amid Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking senior year, coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina’s road to the NCAA championship, and a star-studded March Madness, audiences swelled. This year’s March Madness audiences were the biggest in ESPN’s history, with the 18.9 million who watched the final totaling 90% more than in 2022 and 4 million more than the men’s final. And that growth has followed Clark and stars such as Angel Reese to the WNBA. "We're still not spending at the levels of our NBA brethren, so we have to be sharper with our investments," said WNBA CMO Phil Cook. "But we've all started to align on what ... is driving interest in the league. And it comes down pretty simply to the athletes we have and the games on the court." ESPN’s regular-season WNBA matchups have seen their highest viewership in more than two decades—averaging 1.2 million viewers per game and increasing viewership by 177% from last year. With that growth, advertisers are reaping the benefits. During the summer Olympics in Paris, the U.S. women’s soccer team averaged 9M viewers on NBC and Peacock for its 1-0 gold medal win over Brazil, the most-watched gold medal soccer game since the 2004 Athens Olympics. U.S. women’s basketball’s eighth- straight gold medal win drew 7.8M viewers to NBC and Peacock, peaking at 10.9 million for the last half hour of its victory over France. Brands score big Data shows that fans reward brands that support women’s sports. Sports Innovation Lab made the argument at this year’s NewFronts for marketing to women’s sports fans, with its Fan Project showing they are not only acquired and retained at a 40% higher rate than average sports fans, but they also spent more with Nike, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and luxury and travel brands as a result of being so heavily engaged. Angela Ruggiero—Hockey Hall of Famer, U.S. Olympic gold medalist, and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab—said she was "on a soapbox" and felt alone when she was advocating for women's sports four years ago. “Today, I think we see it. We see the sellout crowds. We see the audience figures," Ruggiero said. "There's more external data to validate some of the internal data we were showing, and that is encouraging for brands." Case in point: According to data research company EDO, brands won big during the women’s NCAA basketball tournament. Fans paid more attention to brand spots during the first two rounds (up 42% from 2023), and subsequently saw increases for the Sweet Sixteen (68%), Elite Eight (5%), Final Four (98%), and title matchup (8%) than they did at any point in last year’s tournament. For all of this year’s women’s March Madness, ad engagement increased by an average of 39%. What’s next? Beyond soccer and basketball, women's sports opportunities continue to explode, especially as organizations including Sports Innovation Lab and GroupM make it increasingly easier for advertisers to get involved via upfront and NewFronts showcases. Whether it’s a six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League drawing more than 19,000 fans to games in Canada; Sabrina Ionescu giving Steph Curry all he could handle from the 3-point line at NBA All-Star Weekend; or the owner of The Sports Bra women’s sports bar in Portland, Ore., franchising her idea to the world with Alexis Ohanian’s backing—no one moment has defined the growth of women’s sports. And there’s still time for brands and broadcasters to grow along with them. “Run with us, because our league is just growing,” said Julie Haddon, chief marketing and commercial officer at the NWSL. “Seeing what’s happening with women’s sports and the moment that we’re in, it’s not just a moment anymore: It’s a movement, and it’s the future.”

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Brands and Broadcasters Are Committing to Women's Sports

Big media deals for the WNBA and NWSL make it easier for viewers and brands to get in on the action

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte