#144 🏅 Game Changers: Women's Sports Media Rights Breakdown

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With all the sports media news recently, we're breaking down a sector moving from sidelines to prime time: Women's Sports Media Rights.

🏅 Women’s Sports and Media Rights

As women’s sports grows, their media rights are a hot commodity. Leagues and federations are now signing longer deals, spreading distribution across multiple partners, or targeting global streaming platforms for major events. The deals differ in size and format, but together they show how women’s sports are moving into mainstream broadcast business.

We’ve seen this across multiple sports: basketball, soccer, cricket, tennis, and rugby, i.e. there is growth across the board. Rights are being structured with more distribution partners, more digital-first buyers, and more emphasis on marquee events as the core commercial drivers.

Here’s a list of recent deals across the women’s sports media landscape, across geographies:

United States

• WNBA announced an 11-year media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal reportedly valued at about $2.2 billion, part of the NBA $75 billion media rights deals. At $200 million annually, it represents a ~250% increase on the current $57 million / year deal.

• NWSL agreed 4-year domestic rights worth $240 million across Amazon, CBS, ESPN and Scripps/ION, with 118 national windows per season confirmed by the league. A huge jump from their previous 3-year deal worth $4.5 million with CBS and Twitch.

• WTA Tour agreed a six-year U.S. rights deal with Tennis Channel through 2032; U.S.-hosted events fall under other contracts.

Europe

• Barclays WSL secured a 5-year UK domestic £65 million (~$87 million) deal with Sky Sports and the BBC from 2025-30. At £13 million / year, it represents a 60% increase on the previous deal signed in 2021, worth £8 million / year.

• Premiership Women’s Rugby announced a multi-year broadcast arrangement with TNT Sports, with additional matches on RugbyPass TV; discovery+ carries coverage in the UK.

• Liga F awarded exclusive global rights to DAZN for five seasons.

Global and other markets

• TATA WPL awarded India broadcast and digital rights to Viacom18 for INR 951 crore (~$11 million) over five years (2023–27).

• FIFA Women’s World Cup signed an exclusive U.S. rights deal with Netflix for the 2027 and 2031 tournaments, including live coverage and studio shows.

What this tells us

• Established leagues like the WNBA and NWSL in the US and WSL in the UK are now securing multi-partner packages with significant growth over previous deals, showing there is confidence in consistent audiences.

• India’s WPL has the highest per-season and per-match value, driven by cricket’s dominance in that market.

• Netflix taking U.S. Women’s World Cups and DAZN’s global Liga F move show streamers using women’s football to build brand and audience internationally.

The growth in women’s sports media rights is real, but it’s still very early days. Some markets are pushing record-breaking values, while others are still laying the groundwork. What is clear is that rights are no longer add-ons or trial runs. They are multi-year, multi-partner contracts that give women’s sports a stable place in the global broadcast economy.

Expect the next phase to focus on measurement and yield per window rather than just bigger totals, because that is where sustainable growth will be proven.

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Top News from the World of Sports Tech & Biz

🎾 The ATP and PIF launched ATP Tennis IQ Powered by PIF, a performance analytics platform giving around 2,000 ATP Tour and Challenger players access to advanced data insights to improve performance and level the playing field.

🎾 IBM and the USTA introduced new AI-powered digital fan experiences for the 2025 US Open, including enhanced match insights and interactive features on USOpen.org and the tournament app.

🏉 Capgemini introduced TryZone IQ, a generative AI-powered platform providing real-time match insights and contextual analysis for broadcast, social, and digital channels at the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, marking the first use of Gen AI at a Rugby World Cup.

🎮 YouTube secured IShowSpeed as a commentator for its $100 million exclusive broadcast of an NFL game in Brazil, marking the platform’s first live NFL rights package.

⚾ Netflix became the exclusive home of the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Japan through a media rights partnership with World Baseball Classic, Inc., owned by MLB.

🏈 NFL streaming ads proved to be 66% more effective than cable and broadcast spots during the 2024–25 season, according to EDO data, with streaming-exclusive games outperforming linear averages in driving measurable audience action.

🏈 The NFL and Cosm extended their multi-year partnership to continue producing and distributing live NFL games in Shared Reality experiences throughout the 2025 season and beyond.

📺 NBC entered advanced talks with Major League Baseball on a $600 million broadcast deal to air regular-season games, playoffs, and World Series coverage across its networks and streaming platforms.

📺 FS1 announced the September 2 launch of Wake Up Barstool, a new weekday morning show combining sports news, betting insights, and Barstool Sports personalities.

⛳ Tiger Woods was appointed to lead the PGA Tour’s new Future Competition Committee, which will explore potential changes to the Tour’s competitive model that respect tradition without being bound to it.

🎭 Charles Leclerc launched “SIDEQUEST,” a new project blending sports and culture, adding to his off-track ventures alongside his Formula 1 career.

💍 Oura secured a decisive legal victory with a favorable U.S. International Trade Commission ruling in its ongoing patent case.

🏀 Rihanna’s multibillion-dollar brand invested in the WNBA, marking its first stake in the league and signaling broader plans to support women’s sports.

🎮 Guild Esports, backed by David Beckham, announced it is shutting down due to financial difficulties and apologized to fans for the decision.

🎮 Thunderobot, a Chinese esports tech company, showcased two dual flagship AI-powered PC products at IFA 2025 in Berlin, the global consumer electronics event.

Money Talks:

💰 Sleep.ai, formerly SleepScore Labs, raised $5.5 million in venture funding to advance its AI-powered sleep intelligence platform that integrates science, scale, and seamless technology for healthtech-driven sleep innovation.

💰 CourseRev.ai, a golf-focused AI technology company, secured a strategic investment from The Walden Golf Group to support expansion plans including go-to-market efforts, personnel hires, and continued AI product development following deployment of its Voice AI solution across Walden’s properties.

💰 Cologne-based health tech startup, Performula, launched its first public offering – with backing from prominent investors such as eSports pioneer Ralf Reichert , angel investor Sebastian Kroth and soccer player Mario Götze in an angel financing round.

🤝 Fitt Insider acquired Active Overwatch, bringing founder Jake Heyen into its Wellworthy business (Fitt’s consumer-facing discovery platform) as it builds a future-proof media platform connecting wellness audiences and brands.

🤝 Sony sold its ownership stake in the Evo fighting game tournament series to Nodwin Gaming for an undisclosed amount, expanding the Indian esports company’s presence in global competitive gaming.

Recap from our content archive:

🔙 STX Article: New Leagues and Emerging Formats

✅ STX Monthly: Last month’s sports tech dealflow, in case you missed it.