LadyStanley
Registered User
ESPN and NCAA reach 8-year, $920 million deal for rights to women's NCAA tournament and other events
The women's NCAA tournament is ESPN's largest NCAA championship event.
Cha-ching
ESPN and NCAA extend rights for WBB tournament and other events - 8 years $920m
- Thread starter LadyStanley
- Start date
Cha-ching
IU Hawks fan
They call me IU
Wondering when the media rights bubble (for certain leagues at least) bursts. Thought ESPN would stop paying for so much, but if it's profitable and the7 get ad money, I guess it would make sense.
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Live sports is really the only thing that people will specifically tune into. Sitcoms, dramas, people now like to binge watch over 1-3 days for an entire season.
IU Hawks fan
They call me IU
These rights are also a selling point for ESPN+, this is all part of their strategy to add tons of niche content to that platform.
The NCAA has finally realized women's college basketball has an audience all its own and they can make money off of it
KevFu
Registered User
The last contract they had for the NCAA WBB plus like 34 other championships was the best bargain in sports business since the Spirits of St. Louis took a TV share in perpetuity to not join the NBA....
And I think THIS contract is drastically undervalued!
Sports Media Watch (or some website like that) estimated the women's NCAA Tourney would be worth $112m ON ITS OWN.
9 million average viewers for the NCG, 4.5 average for the Semis, 2.2 for the Sweet 16 and 1.2 for the Elite 8. The Second Round does a respectable .657 per game (but there's 2 games competing with each other; and the First Round does a tiny .149 per game, but there's 4 games AND the men's tourney...
If the NCAA ever wanted to schedule strategically to limit direct competition between the tournaments an enable someone to just watch wall-to-wall M/W over six days for the first two rounds, they totally could... and drastically increase the value of the WBB tourney.
The Baseball and Softball final rounds average 1.65m and .976 million viewers (16-ish games). Combined THEY should be getting $115m per season with the other sports; and the WBB tourney should be bundled with the men for $2 billion total.
