National Women’s Soccer League makes 4-year rights deal reportedly worth $330m
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San Diego Wave FC forward Alex Morgan (No. 13) and OL Reign defender Alana Cook battling for the ball in the NWSL semi-finals.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced a four-year media rights deal on Thursday that will be a game changer for revenue and exposure for women’s professional football in the United States.
Starting in 2024, the contract is reportedly valued at US$240 million (S$326.4 million) in total, with CBS Sports, ESPN, Amazon and Scripps Sports to show content across cable, broadcast and streaming service providers.
The NWSL has a three-year, US$4.5 million media rights deal with CBS that concludes with the league championship match on Saturday between Gotham FC and OL Reign.
The Reign’s Megan Rapinoe, winner of two World Cup titles with the United States and a fierce activist off the field, was a driving force of the women’s team successful fight with the US Soccer Federation for equal pay and conditions with the men’s squad.
Now she will head into retirement knowing the NWSL has inked the biggest media rights package ever for a North American women’s sports league.
“These partnerships fundamentally change the game for our league and the players who take the pitch each week,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement.
“On behalf of the NWSL, our owners and players, I want to commend CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps for investing in our league and affirmatively declaring to the marketplace that this league is exciting, valuable, and important.
“We have taken great care to ensure our games are discoverable by increasing our reach in order to expose new audiences to everything that makes our league special, without compromising the economic value of our product. This is the beginning of our future.”
There are plans for 118 matches each season to be distributed among the partners’ platforms, including 25 Friday night regular-season matches, a season-opening kick-off match and a quarter-final play-off on Prime Video.
CBS will provide at least 21 games each season on its broadcast television network, the CBS Sports Network and the Paramount+ streaming service, including the league championship on CBS and Paramount+.
Scripps Sports will broadcast 50 games scheduled for 25 double-headers on Saturday nights, create a studio show and carry the NWSL Draft in January.
The league will show 20 games each season on ESPN, including three play-off matches, and include ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ streaming in its coverage. The remainder of the regular-season schedule will be part of a domestic direct-to-consumer package produced and distributed by the league.
The NWSL 12-team table will be expanded in 2024 with the addition of the Bay FC and Utah Royals franchises. REUTERS, AFP
