The National Women’s Soccer League announced a four-year media rights deal on Thursday that will be a game changer for revenue and exposure for women’s professional soccer in the United States.
The country’s top women’s league made four-year deals beginning in 2024 that reportedly are valued at $240 million 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, $4.5 million media rights deal with CBS that concludes with the league championship match Saturday between NJ/NY Gotham FC and OL Reign.
“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 kickoff match and a quarterfinal playoff 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 doubleheaders on Saturday nights, create a studio show and carry the 2024 NWSL Draft in January.
The league will show 20 games each season on ESPN, including three playoff matches, and include ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ streaming in its coverage.
The remainder of the NWSL regular-season schedule will be part of a domestic direct-to-consumer package produced and distributed by the league.
The NWSL playoffs are expanding in 2024 with the addition of the Bay FC and Utah Royals franchises.
–Field Level Media
