How do you win and lose at the same time?
Consider the WNBA, which will now receive a rights fee for the first time ever, as part of the NBA’s new television deal with ESPN/ABC and TNT. The specific amount the league will receive is unknown, but this has to be considered a major victory for the most successful women’s professional sports league.
However, consider the terms of the deal. The WNBA’s presence on broadcast television will now shrink from an already paltry five games to two games. In essence, the league is being paid to air fewer games on broadcast television.
Since leaving NBC, the WNBA has had a significant reduction in games on broadcast television; whereas NBC would air games on an almost weekly basis and throughout the postseason — including Games 2 and 3 of the WNBA Finals — ABC has aired games sporadically during its five year run with the league, and has only aired two WNBA Finals games (one in 2003, and one in 2005).
How can ratings build if ABC airs three regular season games in May and does not air any more games until the final two weeks of the season in August? How can the league’s popularity ever grow if a combined five playoff games have aired on network television in the past four years?
As underwhelming as ratings for the WNBA have always been, they have never been worse than in recent years. In 2002, NBC averaged a 1.0 rating for four WNBA Playoff games. In 2006, ABC averaged a 0.6 rating for two games — a 40% drop. This for a league that, in its late 90’s glory days, once drew a 2.3 for the deciding game of the ’99 Finals — with an 18.8 rating in the Houston market.
Exactly how can having a rights fee truly help the WNBA when the amount of broadcast network exposure hits an all-time low? ESPN2 will air an increased amount of games in the new television deal (18), but one is not likely to grow any new fans by airing the lion’s share of games on an afterthought network like “The Deuce”.
There is, of course, the very strong possibility that the WNBA simply does not have any choice in the matter; the ratings on ABC are terrible, even worse than the numbers put up by the NHL and AFL. Still, it is not as if ABC is making any large-scale investment into the league currently; with only five regular season games, two playoff games and the All Star Game, one would have thought that the amount of broadcast television coverage was already at a minimum.
The rights fee may be a success for the league, but the cost may be too great in the long run.
