Women’s basketball is booming with popularity. The WNBA media contract gods are listening to fans. All four playoff games on Sunday (9/22) are on national TV and all are viewable on their own. No channel flipping needed. Hooray and thank you Disney-ABC-ESPN.
It reminds me of the mid-1980s. Just like the tagline “I want my MTV,” from Dire Straits in 1985. Its a prompt from MTV encouraging young people to contact their local cable company and demand it add the channel. This was at a time when cable TV was in its infancy and most cable systems wouldn’t carry MTV. From circa 1981 to 1993, MTV was innovation in media until the dawn of the internet. Presently MTV is unrecognizable as music videos are nearly non-existent. Instead it now offers a heavy lineup of reality TV shows.
Well, “I want my WNBA!” Today games are staggered and being aired (Eastern Time Zone) at 1 p.m. (ESPN), 3 p.m. (ABC), 5 p.m. (ESPN), and 10 p.m. (ESPN). Thank you networks for agreeing to the WNBA Playoff programming schedule.
No conflicting tip-offs, no games not being televised, no reason for programming complaints. They are all there. Plan the day accordingly. With an ESPN subscription – any missed contest or too late game can be viewed online via replay. The Seattle Storm (SEA) versus the Las Vegas Aces (LV) may be an early Monday morning watch for me.
Why is this important? Attendance, viewership, and interest in the WNBA is booming and off the charts. ESPN and ION Television doubled WNBA regular season viewership in 2024. WNBA games on ESPN averaged 1.2-million viewers this season. ION Television attracted 23.37-million unique viewers in 2024. I believe ION only aired on Friday nights. Attendance is soaring as the Indiana (IN) Fever average over 17,000 fans per contest at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The cheapest ticket at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT for the IN-CT Sun (CT) game is $120 for the upper section, last row, in a corner. The most expensive ticket is Courtside, Row A, selling for $5,220 each. Holy Smokes! Behind the CT bench, about 13 rows up, seats are selling for $812 each.
The viewership numbers could be even much greater, if the broadcast times, channels, and dates were better negotiated and planned. Often five games on ION had four games tipping all at the same time. The games were in different time zones too (Eastern and Central). Locally, I should have had the CT broadcast, but got IN instead. No chance to flip channels and find more competitive contests or games to decide the 8th playoff spot. Stuck with watching blow-outs or out-of-market teams. Oh well. At least a WNBA game was available for viewing that Friday evening.
Then there are the confusing terms and conditions of WNBA’s League Pass (LP), an online streaming service. Note that LP doesn’t broadcast “nationally” televised games live. So that those with LP on a regular season Friday night cannot see any of the four concurrently played games in the example above. This makes no sense at all. Note to the WNBA League Office – fix this. Or, provide access to watch live out-of-market games on LP. What about folks without cable or streaming television? They too, cannot watch on LP LIVE the WNBA playoff games on the Disney-ABC-ESPN family of networks.
The entire LP engagement must be revisited and renegotiated for the 2025 season. Essentially LP subscribers cannot view LIVE nationally broadcast games via the LP subscription. However, games not available LIVE on LP in one’s area, will be available for viewing on demand on WNBA LP at the game’s conclusion. LP does have multi-game viewing – as long as its not a nationally televised game. These include broadcasts on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ION, CBS, CBSSN, and Prime Video. There are more exceptions, if one signs up for WNBA LP through YouTube TV or Amazon Prime Video -as one can only watch LP content on those streams or channels. Its all very, very confusing.
This is how we consume the WNBA. Note to the WNBA League Office – fix this. Make broadcast viewing easier, more accessible, more available, and less cumbersome. Earn more revenue off of increased sponsorships. Up those prices.
While the WNBA renegotiates its broadcast contracts for 2025, this Muse strongly urges a revamping of the WNBA App and website. This will be a full IdealHoops.com post and discussion later on once a WNBA Champion is crowned in October. Stay tuned to this site.
