Breaking: Prime Video Announces Multi-Year Rights With WNBA, Including Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game Rights
Prime Video has been broadcasting games in various worldwide regions for years, and this deal will keep nearly two dozen games on the streamer in the U.S. every season.
As the sporting world turns its focus to the NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four on Friday, Amazon has even more exciting news for women’s hoop fans. The tech giant announced that it had signed a multi-year deal with the WNBA to bring 21 games, including the Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game, to Prime Video. This contract extension comes as women’s sports — particularly basketball — are seeing meteoric increases in popularity and ratings. And with college basketball’s all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark set to enter the league this summer, now seems like the perfect time to lock up as many WNBA games as possible for the next few seasons.
Key Details:
- Prime Video will broadcast nearly two dozen WNBA games in the United States every season.
- The deal will also include the annual championship game of the Commissioner’s Cup.
- The WNBA is looking to increase the price for its total media rights package by $20 million annually in its upcoming round of negotiations.
While the official announcement of the new deal does not disclose how long Amazon and the WNBA are set to partner, it does show that Prime Video is committed to being a player for sports media rights. This new deal will bring 21 WNBA games exclusively to the streaming service every season, including the Commissioner’s Cup finals. This is in addition to Prime Video’s exclusive global streaming rights (except for a handful of countries in Europe and Asia) to 20 regular season games and the Commissioner’s Cup championship.
Amazon’s streaming service has been broadcasting WNBA games since 2021, first internationally and then with a slate of games last year that included the Commissioner's Cup. Last year’s broadcast of the game between the victorious New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces brought in the largest audience for a WNBA game in Prime Video history, reportedly close to doubling the 2022 version of the game in terms of viewership.
Starting in 2022, Prime Video became the streaming home of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. The platform broadcasts a number Storm games nationally every season with even more available to subscribers in Washington state.
“We’re thrilled to continue bringing exclusive national coverage of the WNBA and highlighting these exceptional athletes to Prime members,” Prime Video’s head of sports partnerships Charlie Neiman said. “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.”
Related: How to Watch 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four Live Online for Free Without Cable
The schedule of WNBA games that will appear on Prime Video during the 2024 season will be announced in the coming weeks when the league unveils its entire broadcast slate for the season. Like many streaming-exclusive games, there is the possibility that Prime Video’s contests will also be available in the team’s local markets through our home broadcasting deals, but outside of those regions, fans will only be able to watch on Amazon’s streaming platform.
“We are incredibly pleased that Prime Video is making a meaningful and continued commitment to the WNBA,” the league’s chief growth officer Colie Edison said, “and will once again provide a great platform to showcase the world-class athletes of our league across the regular season and particularly with its streaming of the Championship Game of the new, streamlined Commissioner’s Cup presented by Coinbase.”
The Amazon deal is just a small part of the WNBA’s quest to expand its media rights’ partnerships. Recently, it was reported that the league could look to go out on its own in terms of negotiating with major partners, rather than being bundled with the NBA. The WNBA’s current rights fees reportedly total roughly $60 million per season, but league execs would like to up that to $80 million as women’s sports continue to grow in popularity.
While ESPN executives don't expect the WNBA to make that move, it would not be a surprise if the worldwide leader in sports ends up paying more to retain the majority of the WNBA rights moving forward.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.