With the popularity of women’s basketball on the rise, Prime Video and the WNBA have reached an extension of their current rights deal through the next two seasons.Rights to the NBA and the WNBA are set to expire in 2025 and speculation has been growing about the WNBA being due for a significant hike over current rates given viewership trends. An NCAA tournament game earlier this week featuring the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese drew a record audience of 12.3 million viewers. Both players are slated to be high picks in the forthcoming WNBA draft.Financial terms of the extension were not disclosed.The WNBA, which also has deal with ESPN and last year also signed one with ION, has performed well for Prime Video. The official announcement of the extension noted that the 2023 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup content nearly doubled the tune-in for the same game in 2022.Live sports is also an area of increasing strategic focus for Prime Video as Amazon ramps up its video advertising efforts across its vast portfolio. NFL coverage, including exclusive Thursday Night Football telecasts, has boosted the company’s profile with advertisers. Ads recently started running on scripted programming on Prime Video. The company has scheduled its first presentation for advertisers during the heart of upfronts week in mid-May, taking its place alongside Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix and other major sellers in the lineup.The 21 WNBA games each season will stream exclusively on Prime Video everywhere in the world except in China, Japan, the UK, Italy, Spain, Finland and Germany. The full schedule for 2024 has not yet been released. Each team in the league plays 36 games. Prime Video also livestreams games featuring the Seattle Storm, with additional Storm games available exclusively to Prime members in Washington state.“We’re thrilled to continue bringing exclusive national coverage of the WNBA and highlighting these exceptional athletes to Prime members,” said Charlie Neiman, Head of Sports Partnerships, Prime Video. “Following a successful 2023 season, we’re looking forward to reaching even more milestones with the WNBA and furthering our commitment to women’s sports.”WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison saluted Prime Video for “making a meaningful and continued commitment to the WNBA.”
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