The WNBA has signed a massive national media rights deal unlike any it’s ever seen before.
The league has been receiving lots of extra attention lately, much of which is due to the arrival of Caitlin Clark. And it’s set to get paid handsomely for it.
According to a report from The Athletic, the WNBA is set to receive around $2.2 billion over the next 11 years, having negotiated deals with Disney, NBC, and Amazon.
“The NBA negotiated the WNBA’s new deals during its just-completed rights talks, where it reached an agreement with Disney, NBC, and Amazon on an 11-year, approximately $75 billion set of contracts. The WNBA’s national media rights agreements are with those companies as well; ESPN, NBC, and Amazon will all have their own WNBA packages.”
The NBA’s board of governors approved the deals this week, but they aren’t official yet because Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT’s parent company, claims to have matching rights for a package but has yet to decide whether to use them.
The WNBA Could Make Up To Six Times As Much As What They Make Currently, Thanks To Caitlin Clark
The WNBA’s current deals, set to expire after the 2025 season, are worth around $50 million a year. The new deals will pay around $200 million a year, but the league could make up to six times what it makes now as the new contracts allow them to bring in new partners, which is a huge possibility given Clark’s growing influence.
Two other rights packages are expected to be sold for an additional $60 million annually.
An agreement is also in place to revisit the rights deals in three years if interest in the WNBA continues to grow and the rights become undervalued.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said earlier this year that she hoped the league would at least double its rights fees. It appears expectations have been far exceeded.
