Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, drives to the basket against Atlanta Dream guard Destanni Henderson, #33, during a WNBA preseason game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2024.
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The Women's National Basketball Association regular season begins Tuesday night with rising star Caitlin Clark making her debut as a point guard for the Indiana Fever. The game will stream on Disney+, the service's first live sporting event.
As the NCAA's all-time leading scorer in both men's and women's basketball, Clark helped draw a record 18.9 million viewers to the Women's March Madness National Championship game last month. The former Iowa star was selected with the No. 1 pick on April 15, which alone drove 2.45 million viewers to tune in, surpassing the previous league high for a draft by 307%.
Following Clark's debut at 7:30 pm ET against the Connecticut Sun, Disney+ will stream the matchup between the Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces. Disney+ has previously aired animated simulcasts of sporting events using cartoon characters instead of athletes, but Tuesday's doubleheader is the first instance of a live sports game broadcast on the platform.
disney It nearly turned a profit in its streaming unit for the first time during its fiscal second quarter, the company reported last week. The entertainment giant has increasingly leaned on sports streaming to boost viewership.
Disney's ESPN plans to launch a full direct-to-consumer streaming product in fall 2025 that will allow consumers to subscribe to ESPN without cable.
It is also partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corporation. to offer a sports streaming service they hope to launch this fall, the companies announced in February.
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery's exclusive television rights to NBA games are currently under negotiation.
The WNBA's existing media rights deal expires in 2025. The deal is reportedly worth approximately $60 million, and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she expects that figure to double when the rights are renegotiated.
Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business Program at the University of Washington's Olin School of Business, said the WNBA's debut on Tuesday could be a “defining moment for the league,” and the choice to have the game on Disney+ It will be fundamental for the “key” of the league. demographic” of families and the youngest.
“They covet younger fans, and that's how younger fans watch their sports today: through streaming,” Rishe told CNBC's “Worldwide Exchange” on Tuesday.
“I certainly see some parallels between Caitlin Clark's potential and her power in terms of increasing the reach of the WNBA and Lionel Messi, of all people, and what's happening with Apple TV,” Rishe added, referring to the soccer superstar's 10-year contract with Major League Soccer and the league's streaming deal with Apple TV.
