What should I do then?
That's the big media-centric problem for women's college basketball. Where does the sport go after the incredible viewership of the national championship game? University of South Carolina's 87-75 win over Iowa on April 7 averaged 18.9 million viewers. It was the most-watched women's college basketball game in history, and a record for the most-watched college basketball game (men's or women's) on an ESPN platform. Viewership was up 90% from the 2023 national championship (9.9 million when LSU beat Iowa) and 289% from 2022 (4.9 million when South Carolina beat UConn). . The match peaked with her 24 million viewers on ABC and ESPN in the final 15 minutes.
The 2024 NCAA Women's Final Four averaged 13.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched game on record. That number includes her 14.4 million viewers for Iowa vs. UConn (the second most-watched women's college game on record) and her 7.2 million viewers for North Carolina State vs. South Carolina. Masu. Average viewership for the entire tournament (57 games) across ESPN platforms was 2.2 million, an increase of 121% from 2023. It's the most-watched women's NCAA tournament since ESPN acquired exclusive rights in 1996.
To put the ratings for South Carolina and Iowa into perspective, here are the tops for this game:
• Every World Series game since Game 7 in 2019.
• Every NBA Finals game since Game 5 in 2017.
• Competed in the Daytona 500 since 2006.
• All Masters final rounds since 2001.
• All but four college football games in 2023.
• All but one of the non-Olympic women's sporting events will be shown on U.S. television. It's the 2015 Women's World Cup final between the United States and Japan.
That's the momentum this sport has going forward. Iowa State star Caitlin Clark is now in the WNBA, and her departure will certainly hurt viewer numbers for next year's NCAA Tournament. It's wishful thinking to think that next year's title game will draw more than 18 million people, but the opportunity to grow women's college basketball is enormous.
The first step from this perspective is to increase visibility of the regular season schedule.
“My focus with the team is on how we can get to a better position with more consistency in the delivery of regular season women's college basketball on a premier platform throughout the season over the next few years. ,” Nick said. Dawson is ESPN's senior vice president of programming and acquisitions. “We've made a little bit of progress over the last four or five years, but it's still a little spotty throughout the regular season in terms of when the opportunities exist, especially in January, February and March leading up to the tournament. How can we better propel this sport into the early months and build a continuous and consistent platform?”
Dawson points out that the media rights holders that own significant national women's college basketball broadcast rights, ESPN, Fox Sports (particularly via the Big Ten Network) and Peacock, have an opportunity to showcase a sport with momentum. is correct. It is important to enjoy sports in a linear window. For example, Fox Sports will broadcast 14 regular-season women's college basketball games on Big Fox this season, including coverage of Tennessee vs. Indiana immediately after the NFL game on Thanksgiving. (That match drew her 1.12 million viewers.)
Terrestrial TV inventory growth needs to continue, especially at Disney's ABC. If Fox is serious about women's basketball and wants to draw new attention to its product, as it should be, the company has a full-time national women's basketball writer on his website. I hope that it will be added. The same goes for NBC Sports. (The lack of full-time women's basketball writers in traditional print and digital media across the country remains disturbing.)
Looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, Dawson said ESPN will continue to enhance its national window plan and tweak its schedule to take advantage of opportunities from a distribution standpoint. The company recently signed an eight-year deal with the NCAA (costing $115 million annually) to televise 40 college sports championships each year, including the women's basketball tournament, but this year's viewership numbers Considering that, it already looks like a sweet deal. (The new contract guarantees the women's basketball tournament will be broadcast on ABC.)
Notably, schools say the NCAA is working to correct one of the most despicable disparities in college basketball, according to an article by Nicole Auerbach. Auerbach writes: “Each men’s team participating in March His Madness earns a portion of his NCAA Tournament proceeds, called a “unit,” by making the field, and for each subsequent win, he earns one unit. Each NCAA Tournament unit is worth just over $2 million and will be paid over six years. Women's teams receive nothing for winning or advancing in the NCAA Tournament. ”
One of the ancillary benefits of this year's tournament is the advertising dollars that go into the sport. Sportico's Anthony Crupi reported in his March 21st report that ad buyers surveyed said they “wouldn't be surprised if Disney generated more than his $25 million in ad sales revenue” in this year's tournament. Next year's tournament sales below this year's numbers would mean an increase in advertising sales numbers.
“I don't simply accept the fact that the explosion in consumption of tournaments is not just due to our commitment to the sport,” Dawson said. “That's largely due to the star power of the players on the court, and the Caitlin Clarks of the world. It's transformed. How do we maintain that? How do we maintain that storytelling? How do we maintain that ability to create stars that more casual sports fans are interested in? We talked a lot during negotiations with the NCAA about working with them as much as possible to make that even more possible.”
An obvious showcase would be moving the national semifinals to the network. Is there a possibility that all of the women's final four will move to ABC in the future?
“That's a fair question,” Dawson said. “There have been discussions regarding the timing of the championship game and network considerations for the national semifinals. It's an eight-year contract, so it may not end where it starts.”
“At this point, our intention is to continue what we've been doing, which is to continue with the championship game on ABC's Sunday late afternoon slot, but in terms of potential viewership, our The research team demonstrated that there was no significant difference in conditions' potential upside between that window and the prime time window. This is an especially interesting discussion because the semifinals will be played on Friday night, and the doubleheader, pregame show, and everything else will take about five hours or more. …I can't think of anything in the long term. We will continue to have these conversations each year to assess how the distribution industry is changing. ”
ESPN executives are already considering opportunities to expand sports content. For example, the company plans to expand its College GameDay franchise for girls next year. More programs will be displayed from the campus site. Their focus on developing star players will lead to more storytelling around players who didn't get as much attention this year as Clark or LSU's Angel Reese, like USC's JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo. I want you to pay attention.
One thing that would seem like an obvious addition for ESPN would be to air a program dedicated to women's basketball throughout the year. Look at all the accolades ESPN's women's basketball studio analysts received during the tournament. If you want to become the sports media center that ESPN is doing, here are some steps you need to take.
Dave Roberts, ESPN's head of events and studio production and head of NBA and WNBA production, said the company is open to considering everything.
“As we merged from women’s college basketball to the WNBA, we are in no better position to continue the momentum we have shown throughout this tournament,” Roberts said. “While we can't announce anything at this time, we will be on the lookout for any opportunity to showcase our sport. You'll see that with the WNBA Draft on April 15th.” …We are aggressive and opportunistic. , we will work on an innovative and proactive program centered on women's basketball. ”
even deeper
Caitlin Clark's new reality is here. What will her transition to the WNBA be like?
even deeper
College star to WNBA question: Can Caitlin Clark increase the number of WNBA fans?
(Photo of Raven Johnson and Holly Rowe: Ben Solomon/NCAA Photo via Getty Images)