The WNBA might triple its media rights charges to $200 million per season. The present package deal is valued at roughly $60 million and expires subsequent season.
The NBA owns roughly 60 % of the WNBA and is negotiating that deal alongside its greater than $7 billion per season packages with ESPN, NBC and Amazon.
As a result of the WNBA deal is a part of a mixed package deal with the NBA, the league will decide how a lot the WNBA media rights are value.
The WNBA gamers will obtain a share of their media rights income and can see their salaries improve. The WNBA presently has a wage cap of round $1.4 million for every workforce, which places the typical wage for every participant at a bit of greater than $100,000. The WNBA gamers are anticipated to decide out of their collective bargaining settlement subsequent 12 months.
“It’s an enormous benefit to us to go to market with the NBA,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert advised The Washington Publish. “Particularly with streaming providers who depend on a 12-month subscription mannequin. If we’re solely there for 4½ months … how engaging is that? However we and the NBA are perhaps the one sports activities properties that can provide 330 days of stay programming — virtually the whole 12 months. That’s vastly priceless to a subscription platform.”
The WNBA had whole income of between $180 million and $200 million final season. Regardless of the current development of the WNBA, the league and its groups are anticipated to lose round $50 million this season.
“The reality is, this league could be hard-pressed to exist with out the NBA,” mentioned one WNBA workforce government.
