Is the WNBA Being Undervalued in Their New $2.2 Billion Media Rights Deal?

The WNBA just closed on a new media rights deal in partnership with the NBA. The WNBA is set to make $200 million a year for the next 11 years for a total of $2.2 billion which will be a dramatic increase from its previous deal that gave them $60 million annually from their media rights. This new deal marks some healthy growth for a league that has been on the rise recently with Caitlin Clark’s stardom continuing to rise across the nation. However, is the WNBA still being undervalued by the NBA and the media as signified by this new deal?

One of the first things to note is that the NBA owns around 60% of the WNBA, so the NBA is the organization that negotiates deals for the WNBA. The NBA is finalizing their own media rights deal and they will be giving a certain amount of money to the WNBA which is where this $200 million a year is coming from. However, the NBA’s new media rights deal is projected to be worth $76 billion and they will be giving the WNBA only $2.2 billion of that over 11 years. This indicates that the NBA believes the WNBA will account for about three percent of total professional basketball viewership in the United States over the next decade.

However, trends in viewership across the NBA, WNBA, and college basketball would suggest otherwise. NBA playoff viewership was actually down 12% year-to-year to about 4.53 million viewers per game. Meanwhile, the WNBA and its players are becoming more dynamic and well-known like Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark in particular has come in and dominated the league which is drawing in massive attendance and television viewership which is breaking WNBA records. The Indiana Fever is averaging 16,898 per home game which is more than four NBA teams including the Indiana Pacers who are in the same city as the Fever. Caitlin Clark games have a national television viewership of over a million viewers per regular season game while the NBA’s regular season viewership is about 1.4 million per game. When looking at college basketball, the women’s national championship game this year actually got more viewership than the men’s championship game 18.9 million to 14.8 million respectively.

Now don’t get me wrong, the NBA is more popular than the WNBA and probably always will be. However, the WNBA with its new stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, with Paige Bueckers on the way from college, the women’s game will only increase in popularity in the future. They absolutely deserve more than three percent of the NBA’s new media rights deal. Even with the WNBA being undervalued in this media rights deal, they should be very optimistic about their future as long as they embrace their new young stars.