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The WNBA announces the addition of three new teams, boosting the growth and popularity of professional women’s basketball.

The WNBA takes a historic step with the expansion of three new teams, marking a pivotal moment for professional women’s basketball in the United States. On 30 June, the Women’s National Basketball Association announced the inclusion of the cities of Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Detroit in its league, a move that reflects the unstoppable growth and rising popularity of women’s sport.

This expansion is a direct response to the increased demand for women’s basketball, which has reached record levels in viewership, investment, and fan enthusiasm. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert highlighted that this decision is driven by the depth of available talent and the growing interest in supporting and promoting professional basketball for women.

One of the most significant aspects of this expansion is Cleveland’s return to the WNBA map.

As it enjoys a TV ratings resurgence, the WNBA is expanding to 18 teams, adding franchises in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit.

The league’s 15 existing clubs include the Golden State Valkyries, which played their first games in May 2025, as well as teams starting up next year in Toronto and Portland, Or. The Cleveland team will begin play in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030.

Caitlin Clark’s recent injury caused a significant drop in WNBA TV ratings, but her return has seen viewership surge back toward peak levels. A contest last week between Clark’s Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces averaged 1.7 million viewers on ESPN, the network’s fifth-biggest regular-season game.

“The demand for women’s basketball has never been higher, and we are thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA family,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. “This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum,...

(Photo by Ted Pio Roda / Handout)

The E. W. Scripps Company and its Scripps Sports division will continue offering WNBA games on Ion and some local stations for a few more years.

On Friday, the company announced a new multi-year agreement that allows Ion to continue offering Friday night WNBA double-header games under the “Friday Night Spotlight” franchise. Scripps began offering WNBA games on Ion two years ago, and some Scripps-owned local stations also broadcast games throughout the week.

Scripps has made a significant investment in its WNBA presentation since it started airing games in 2023. The broadcaster produces pre-game and post-game programming for its WNBA events on Ion, and unveiled a new, state-of-the-art production facility and TV studio last year, which help support its live sports programming initiatives.

The timing of the original deal could not have been better: College basketball superstar Caitlin Clark generated a lot of buzz during...

Former Today show co-anchor Hoda Kotb has officially launched her next venture, Joy 101, a wellness platform and community designed to help people live more joyful, grounded, purposeful lives.

“You know when you find something so special, so life-changing that you just have to share it? That’s me, and that’s Joy 101,” Kotb said in a statement. “It’s a place to pass on the light, the lessons and the healing I’ve been lucky enough to receive from the very best in wellness. Think of it as an introduction into a more joyful, balanced, beautiful life. Let’s goooooo!”

Joy 101 will feature an app, online courses and practices as well as in-person retreats and other gatherings.

The app gently guides people on their journey in the form of daily content from top experts, curated by Kotb and tailored to each user. Joy 101 will feature some of the practices and...

(Photo by Ted Pio Roda / Handout)

The fandom surrounding basketball prodigy Caitlin Clark has driven immense interest in Women’s National Basketball Games (WNBA) since she was drafted by the Indiana Fever earlier this year — and no television broadcaster has benefitted more from this than the E. W. Scripps Company.

On Thursday, executives at Scripps said viewership of its WNBA on Ion telecasts drew 23.37 million unique viewers across its games and wrap-up shows, a 133 percent increase compared to the 2023 season, when Ion began airing Friday evening WNBA games.

Ion broadcast nearly four dozen WNBA games this season, a record for the league. The games air for free on over-the-air Ion television affiliates across the country, and through the Ion free, ad-supported streaming TV (Fast) channel on platforms like Fox Corporation’s Tubi, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus and Amazon’s Freevee.

“This season was a big step forward for the...

Scripps operates more than 60 local TV stations in over 40 markets, as well as multicast and streaming networks like Scripps News.

Social causes and the emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominee for the White House are expected to bolster political ad spending across the E. W. Scripps Company’s portfolio of five dozen local TV stations and some multicast networks, executives confirmed this week.

“Election spending remains robust for the U.S. Senate races in Montana and Ohio, and at least four states where we have stations have placed reproductive rights issues on their November ballots,” Scripps CEO Adam Symson said in a statement that accompanied the broadcaster’s most-recent financial earnings report.

“We are beginning to see additional upside from Vice President Kamala Harris’s entry into the presidential race,” Symson continued. “Overall, this year’s political ad revenue performance for broadcast television is a...

The league already has deals finalized with NBC, Amazon and Disney, but can add up to two more rights packages to its total inventory.

The WNBA isn’t quite done making deals. That’s according to Front Office Sports, who reports that the league is getting closer to selling two additional rights packages after finalizing deals with NBCUniversal, Amazon and Disney in late July. The three packages already sold will fetch $200 million per year, and if it sells the other two packages it can make more than $260 million each season over the 11-year lifetime of the contracts.

Key Details: Fos reports that CBS and Ion, who already hold WNBA rights packages, are the two most likely to get the outstanding game parcels in the new deal. The new WNBA deals take hold after the 2025 season. The WNBA has discussed negotiating rights deals on its own but is sticking with the...

The WNBA’s new deals start in 2026, and continue for 11 seasons.

The WNBA is ready for a big raise. The league has announced that it has agreed to terms on deals with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon to distribute its games starting in 2026 and continuing for the next 11 seasons. The agreements will see games distributed on broadcast and cable channels, as well as various streaming platforms. It mirrors the NBA’s new rights deals in terms of distribution partners, but it differs in that the WNBA still has the right to add up to two new partners to help it grow its audience even further.

Key Details: Previous reporting indicated the WNBA will make $200 million per season in the deal. NBCU platforms will get 50 regular season games each year, while 30 will play on Disney platforms and 30 more will appear on Prime Video. Semifinals and Finals series will rotate between partners over the course of the deal.

Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark participates in a game between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 14th, 2024. (Photo by John Mac)

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has forged a landmark national television distribution deal that will see more than 125 games each season aired on broadcast, cable and streaming TV platforms.

The deal starts with the 2026 season and will see Comcast’s NBC, the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN and Amazon’s Prime Video distribute games over the course of 11 seasons. The agreement was announced on the same day that the National Basketball Association (NBA) revealed a similar deal with the three media rights holders for professional men’s basketball games.

Comcast will distribute the highest number of games each year, with a minimum of 50 regular-season games offered on the NBC broadcast network, cable channel USA Network and Comcast’s streaming service Peacock.

Reflecting on their long-term deal with the NBA, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and EVP of Programming & Acquisitions Rosalyn Durant said the rise of the WNBA of late provided extra motivation to renew.

“There’s a lot of demand for WNBA content right now, which, from our perspective, is fantastic,” Pitaro said during a press call. The call was arranged after the league’s confirmation of long-rumored rights deals with Disney-espn, NBCUniversal and Prime Video, at a reported $77 billion over 11 years.

“We’re looking at a rising tide right now, where we’re seeing our competitors in the industry really get behind women’s sports in general and behind the WNBA,” Pitaro continued. “And that’s a good thing! We love the momentum around women’s sports in general but especially around the WNBA.”

The NBA created the WNBA in 1996, but only in the past several years has it seen a...

Like their counterparts in the NBA, the WNBA has signed a long-term media rights deal with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon — with a big increase in the value of the contract.

The 11-year deal, which will begin with the WNBA’s 2026 season, will consolidate the bulk of the league’s rights with those three companies, down from five (Disney, Amazon, CBS, Scripps’ Ion network and NBA TV) in the current deal. The agreement is reportedly worth about $200 million per season, or $2.2 billion for the full term — more than three times the current, $60 million per season deal that ends in 2025. (Additional partners may come on board before the new deal kicks in, the WNBA says.)

The new deal also comes as the WNBA is enjoying a surge in popularity on TV, with a record-breaking 16 games this season topping 1 million viewers, according to Nielsen figures. The previous high was 15 — including the playoffs — back in 1998.

“Partnering with Disney,...

Updated with WNBA details: Warner Bros Discovery and its TNT network is out of the game with the NBA. However, as a part of overall bundled deals between the league and the outlets, the burgeoning WNBA has reupped its agreements with Disney’s ESPN as well as Amazon’s Prime Video and inked a brand new deal with NBCUniversal.

Sticking with new-ish pals Jeff Bezos and Amazon, the Adam Silver-run league Wednesday rejected the David Zaslav-led media giant’s last-ditch effort to keep some basketball rights for the 2024-2025 season.

“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” said the NBA in a statement Wednesday over a reported $1.8 billion per year offer.

“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,...

The league will almost quadruple its current annual revenue from its TV deals, and could make even more.

The new broadcast deal for the NBA has dominated headlines this week, but now it’s the WNBA’s turn. As first reported by The Athletic, the league has agreed to new agreements with ESPN, Amazon’s Prime Video, and NBC to broadcast its games for the next 11 years. The deals are reportedly worth $2.2 billion over the course of their contracts. This represents a massive raise for the WNBA, coming at a time when the value of women’s sports broadcasting agreements is decidedly on the rise.

Key Details: The deal pays an average of $200 million per season. The contract allows the WNBA to sell up to two more game packages to other outlets. ESPN, Amazon, and NBC have agreed to revisit the deals if they are undervalued three years from now.

Caitlin Clark can earn up to $500,000 during her rookie season, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has claimed in an effort to quell outrage on the No. 1 draft choice’s low base salary.

The former Iowa star will make just $76,535 in base salary from the Indiana Fever, part of a four-year, $338,056 deal with the team. When that was revealed, outrage ensued, as the base is much lower than a comparable NBA amount.

Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick in last year’s NBA draft, signeda four-year, $55.2 million rookie contract, the largest possible deal under the NBA’s current labor agreement. That comes to roughly $12 million in base salary as a rookie.

Engelbert has now clarified that Clark will likely make far more.

“[For a] CEO, do you just put the base pay in there? No, you put their bonus, you put their stock options, you put everything,” Engelbert said at a CNBC Changemakers event, according to NJ.

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Quick Answer: Viewers can watch the 2024 WNBA Draft online for free with trials to DirecTV Stream or fuboTV.

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March Madness has come and gone, and now women’s basketball fans will find out which of their favorite players from the NCAA will go pro in tonight’s WNBA Draft on ESPN.

After she shattered scoring records and helped lead Iowa to the...

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If you’re still coming down from the high of the (well-watched!) women’s NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, you can get one more glimpse of all the biggest players in Monday’s WNBA Draft. But what if you’re a cord-cutter? No need to worry! Here’s everything you need to know for how to watch the 2024 WNBA Draft online without cable.

More from TVLineChad...

If you’re still coming down from the high of the (well-watched!) women’s NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, you can get one more glimpse of all the biggest players in Monday’s WNBA Draft. But what if you’re a cord-cutter? No need to worry! Here’s everything you need to know for how to watch the 2024 WNBA Draft online without cable.

Where to Watch the 2024 WNBA Draft

The WNBA Draft is set to begin at 7:30 pm Et on Monday, April 15, with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the picks live on ESPN. The Indiana Fever will get the night’s No.

There comes a moment in many sports documentaries when viewers find themselves wondering whether they’ve drunk the Gatorade. All the fast cuts and swelling music, the bodily injuries and emotional agony, the triumphant moments and podium tears have a way of pushing our buttons.

In director Sarah Dowland’s “Sue Bird: In the Clutch,” that objectivity-questioning pause comes when the WNBA legend’s agent appears for an on-camera interview (she happens to be one of its executive producers as well). No arguing that agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas knows a great deal about Bird and even more about the changes in marketing strategies that women athletes have faced over the years. She also knows that optics matter, and it’s hard not to be a little frustrated that such an obviously biased cheerleader should appear as a source. (Another red flag: NBA Entertainment had a role in producing the doc.

Ion, the free broadcast channel from E.W. Scripps, is about to get its first live sports offering in its history. Scripps has announced a new multi-year partnership with the WNBA to televise games on Friday nights during the regular season.

“WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on Ion” will offer WNBA games during two windows on Friday nights over 15 weeks, from May 26 to Sept. 8. Scripps and the league will announce the full schedule, including times at a later date. Some games will be national broadcasts, while others will be regional.

“The WNBA is thrilled to partner with Scripps to expand the league’s media horizon and reach basketball fans in greater numbers,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “Access to watch WNBA games is in high demand, and Scripps’ dedicated Friday night lineup of WNBA games on Ion will become much desired appointment viewing for WNBA fans.”

WNBA games are the first live...

The WNBA hopes to find new bounce when it starts a line-up of Friday-night games on the broadcast network Ion.

The pact is part of a new deal struck between E.W. Scripps, which purchased Ion in 2020 for $2.65 billion and brings live sports to the outlet for the first time since it launched in 1998 as Pax TV, then under the aegis of Paxson Communications. And it suggests a new model for sports leagues hoping to navigate an era in which the traditional sports model — reaching fans via national and regional cable — is facing challenges.

The deal will give the WNBA more audience reach, with an “appointment viewing” event each Friday, says Colie Edison, the WNBA’s chief growth officer, in an interview. The league’s games are telecast by Disney’s ESPN and ABC, and Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, but those companies have rights deals with other, bigger leagues...

It’s been a little over three years since Vanessa Bryant walked out on the court at the Los Angeles Lakers’ arena on Feb. 24, 2020, for the memorial service of her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their daughter, Gianna. On March 7, Vanessa made her return to the venue — then called the Staples Center and now Crypto.com Arena — to honour her late husband’s close friend and teammate, Pau Gasol, as the team retired his No. 16 jersey.

During the ceremony, the Lakers owners and players talked about Gasol’s legacy on the team, which includes two NBA championships and multiple All-Star Game appearances, and lifted his number to the rafters.

Read More: Vanessa Bryant Settles Lawsuit Over Helicopter Crash Photos for $28.85 Million

Commissioner of the WNBA Cathy Engelbert (L) stands with Vanessa Bryant (2L) as she gives The 2023 Kobe & Gigi Bryant WNBA Advocacy Award to NBA Legend Pau Gasol (R) on stage...

Amazon and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced a multi-year agreement giving Prime Video exclusive global streaming rights to 16 WNBA games per season, as well as the Commissioner’s Cup Game on Sunday, August 12.

Prime Video’s WNBA coverage starts Saturday, May 29 in New York with Atlanta Dream vs New York Liberty. The deal, featuring a WNBA game each week during the regular season, marks the first time Prime Video has exclusive global streaming rights to a women’s professional sports league. The matchup Saturday is also the service’s first for exclusive international streaming rights to any professional basketball game.

Unlike Amazon’s NFL exclusive, this is a partial-season deal, as per its Yankee broadcasts, but a sign that it’s continuing to push into live sports streaming. The pact gives the WNBA a reliable source of cash.

“The WNBA is one of the premier professional sports...

Coronavirus upended the business of live sports, but fans have shifted to sports-inspired films and docuseries, such as ESPN Films’ “The Last Dance” and Netflix’s “Cheer” and “Last Chance U.” On Variety’s Sports & Entertainment Breakfast, which aired Aug. 28 in the Variety Streaming Room, Green Bay Packers quarterback, two-time NFL Mvp and Super Bowl champion Aaron Rodgers, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ five-time All-Star and NBA champion Kevin Love and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert talked the state of sports entertainment.

Meanwhile, the Sports Storytelling Elite Roundtable features Libby Geist, VP and executive producer, ESPN Films and original content; Jeron Smith, CEO of Unani-mous Media; Gotham Chopra, co-founder, chief creative officer, Religion of Sports; Charlie Dixon, EVP, Content, FS1, Fox Sports; Greg Whiteley, executive producer/director, “Cheer”; and Emilie Deutsch, VP, original programming and features at CBS Sports.

Here are the top highlights from Variety’s Sports & Entertainment Breakfast:

Aaron Rodgers On...

Gianna Bryant, Alyssa Altobelli and Peyton Chester are being honored alongside the class of 2024 during the Wnba draft. On Friday afternoon, the Wnba recognized the players in a virtually hosted draft for the class of 2024. Wnba commissioner Cathy Engelbert started the night with a speech honoring Kobe Bryant, Gianna and others. "Kobe was not only a legendary basketball star, but a devoted youth coach and had a tremendous impact on countless young players. I met Kobe last fall and after he left our office I remember thinking that his passion for the Wnba and girls basketball was unparalleled from anyone else I had ever met," she stated. "Alongside Kobe, eight others were...

Update: ESPN, citing sources “familiar with the call,” said President Trump believes the NFL season should start on time.

Trump also reportedly said he hoped to have fans back in stadiums by August and September. The NFL recently shut down all training facilities, but will continue with a remote version of its draft later this month.

More from DeadlineTom Dempsey Dies: NFL Kicker Held Longest Field Goal Record For 43 Years, Was 73Nfl Adds Playoff Games On Nickelodeon & Peacock As Postseason Expands To 14 TeamsSuper Bowl-Winning Coach Sean Payton Says He Tested Positive For Coronavirus

Earlier: President Donald Trump spoke by telephone today with commissioners of various major league sports to discuss the response to Covid-19.

Details on the call were not made available by the White House, which just released a list of participants to the White House Press Pool. The Pool’s note indicated that President Trump recognized the good...