[ad_1]
Breanna Stewart, #30 of the New York Liberty, dribbles the ball in opposition to Napheesa Collier, #24 of the Minnesota Lynx, within the fourth quarter throughout Recreation Three of the WNBA Finals at Goal Heart in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Oct. 16, 2024.
David Berding | Getty Photographs
Versant has signed a brand new 11-year media cope with the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation, the corporate introduced Tuesday.
The settlement kicks off for the 2026 season and contains at the very least 50 WNBA video games yearly and parts of playoff and finals video games throughout choose years, the corporate mentioned.
Versant, the dad or mum firm of cable networks and types quickly to be spun off from Comcast, has been quickly buying sports activities rights and diving deeper into ladies’s sports activities particularly.
The most recent settlement expands upon a earlier package deal between the WNBA and Versant’s USA Community signed in 2024. The protection will embody Wednesday night time double-headers, a devoted pregame present and a postgame studio present.
“We’re extremely proud to increase our multi-year partnership with the WNBA,” mentioned Matt Hong, president of sports activities for Versant. “USA Community shall be a vacation spot for WNBA viewers all season lengthy, as we showcase the star energy throughout the league.”
For the WNBA, presently in its twenty ninth season, the deal comes amid record-breaking tv viewership, attendance, merchandise gross sales and group valuations.
“As demand for girls’s basketball continues to rise, partnerships like this increase the visibility and accessibility of our recreation,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert mentioned in a press release.
The league signed an 11-year media rights cope with Disney, Amazon and Comcast-owned NBCUniversal final July as a part of the NBA’s media rights negotiation. The WNBA’s deal is valued at about $200 million per yr, CNBC beforehand reported. It additionally signed a brand new media cope with Scripps’ Ion in June.
Versant mentioned manufacturing particulars, together with studio commentary groups, shall be introduced within the coming months.
The brand new WNBA deal will imply that for eight months out of the yr, ladies’s sports activities shall be broadcast dwell on USA Community.
Earlier this month, Versant struck a multiyear cope with League One Volleyball to broadcast primetime video games on Wednesday nights. In August, the corporate signed a deal to lengthen its rights with the U.S. Golf Affiliation, price $93 million yearly, based on an individual conversant in the deal who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate phrases of the deal.
Versant additionally holds quite a few golf rights via the Golf Channel, along with rights throughout Premier League soccer, WWE, NASCAR, Atlantic 10 school basketball protection and the Olympics.
“We’re in search of sports activities offers that drive distribution, diversify advert gross sales and have a price,” Versant CEO Mark Lazarus advised CNBC in Could.
Disclosure: Comcast is the dad or mum firm of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would turn into the brand new dad or mum firm of CNBC upon Comcast’s deliberate spinoff of Versant.
[ad_2]
