Women’s Sports Step Forward To Help Networks

For years, the question has been posed this way: when will networks boost women’s sports by putting them in a position to be more widely seen?

But the truth is, as we’ve seen in several announcements this week — the women’s college basketball national championship, headed to ABC in the spring of 2023, and the NWSL championship game, played in prime time on CBS on October 29 — that women’s sports has the audience and, with each new opportunity, a track record that makes it a no-brainer for networks to put the marquee events on bigger platforms. Indeed, it isn’t a favor to women’s sports. It will help networks stem the tide of audiences that are shrinking in virtually all other respects.

Let’s start with the decision by ESPN to move the national title game — widely expected to feature Aliyah Boston and South Carolina — to ABC from ESPN.

“It’s a benchmark announcement for women’s basketball in being able to showcase the national championship game in Dallas for an expanded audience on ABC for the first time in 2023,” said Beth Goetz, chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at Ball State. “We are grateful to ABC/ESPN for the partnership in the continued growth of the game and championship.”

I mean, sure. But last year, the national championship game, on ESPN, drew 4.46 million viewers. It trounced all the other cable television programs that night. And it was on par with what ABC showed that night, including American Idol.

The reason this is deceiving, of course, is because broadcast television can reach north of 120 million households. ESPN? 76 million and dropping fast. It is almost impossible to imagine a rating for next year’s national title game that doesn’t rise dramatically, and even a small bump will mean ABC is the clear beneficiary of this move.

As for the NWSL title game at CBS, the numbers are more complicated. There’s no real baseline for the championship — last season drew 525,000 eyeballs, a huge jump from 2019, but still reflecting a noon timeslot. It’s a chance for CBS to see what the NWSL title game cam earn in audience with 60 Minutes as a lead-in, a thing I think it’s fair to say none of us who have covered the league could imagine as recently as a few years ago, when the since-departed NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush used to strike deals for the league to be on television at all midway through the season.

CBS, though, has another, vital reason to improve the way they market and feature NWSL — their deal with the league is coming to an end. And unlike the Plush years, there is a growing understanding across the television landscape that women’s live sports are a potential ratings goldmine.

Jessica Berman, who is no Jeff Plush, has emphasized the importance of broadcast windows in any new television deal.

Safe to say: CBS heard her.