TNT Sports increases its commitment to women's basketball. The American network acquired the audiovisual rights to the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). in the UK and Ireland, as TNT Sports revealed in a statement. The amount of the agreement or its expiry were not revealed, although the company confirms that it is “multi-year.”
“Fans will be able to watch a minimum of sixteen Wnba regular season games each season either live or on demand through TNT Sports and Discovery+,” the letter explains.
Wnba coverage on TNT Sports will begin next Wednesday, May 15, with the New York Liberty-Washington Mystics game. The agreement also includes PlayoffsThe Finals and the All-Star Game.
In this way, TNT Sports benefits from the interest generated by the maximum competition in women's basketball, which It set a record for viewers in the last finals with an average of 673,000 viewers. Wnba interest remained through the regular season, increasing 67% during the first half of the 2022-2023 season.
TNT Sports already owns the rights to the National Basketball Association (NBA).
“The opportunity to broadcast the WNBA is another step to reflect the diversity of our audience and, at the same time, complement our existing basketball rights, such as the NBA,” stressed Trojan Pilot, senior vice president of sports rights acquisition and distribution at Warner Bros.
At the beginning of 2022, the Wnba raised $75 million through… Our goal is to launch a new business model, with Nike and Pau Gasol among the main investors in the process. The capital raise was the largest ever for a women's sports property.
Since then, the Wnba has focused its strategy on Generate new revenues by increasing investment in priority areasThis is in line with the long-term commercial transformation undertaken by the league. The competition uses the proceeds from the capital raising to promote its brand.
The WNBA is a North American women's basketball competition created in 1996 at the initiative of the NBA, its current owner, and currently consists of twelve teams divided into two conferences (East and West).
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