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One of the notable details within the WNBA’s $200 million–per-year media-rights deal with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon is that the Finals will alternate among the three networks.
In 2026, the first year of the 11-year deal valued at $2.2 billion, NBC and Peacock will broadcast the Finals, the first time ABC will not air at least one game of the championship series since 1998. In 2028, Amazon will broadcast the Finals on Prime Video, the first time a championship series of a major U.S. league has been scheduled to air exclusively on a streaming platform.
The NBA, which signed a larger $76 billion deal that includes the WNBA’s package, is keeping its Finals on ESPN networks, as it has since the early 2000s. But Prime Video will broadcast one conference-finals series in six of the 11 years.
This is another step forward in the streaming takeover of live sports, which has accelerated over the last several years, particularly since the NFL moved Thursday Night Football to Prime Video in 2022, followed by the NFL’s much-maligned wild-card playoff game on Peacock in January.
A Template for Others?
Could the WNBA Finals on Prime Video be a catalyst for other leagues moving their championship series exclusively to streaming?
There’s no definitive answer, according to Tom Richardson, senior vice president for Mercury Intermedia and sports management professor at Columbia University. But he referred to this period in media and sports as a “transitional phase,” in that everything is a test to understand the behavior of sports’ audience.
While Richardson admits that much of the move to streaming is about money—streaming companies like Amazon and Apple have the deepest pockets in the industry—the leagues are also looking to test how to present themselves to the new sports viewer, a Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience whose viewership behavior often involves multiple screens.
“The industry can’t expect the next generation to dutifully watch the way their forebearers watched, which was kind of lean back passively,” Richardson says.
What’s Old Is New Again
Unfortunately for consumers, the multitude of streaming services has made the experience of being a sports fan confusing. According to Front Office Sports senior writer Michael McCarthy, there is a world in which leagues consolidate into one or two platforms—which would just be a new-age version of the cable bundle.
“I think there’s going to be a rebundling of the old bundle, except it won’t be on cable; it’ll be on streaming,” McCarthy says. “If you have too many streaming services, it’s going to get just too expensive to subscribe to all of them.”
Richardson isn’t as bullish about the idea of a consolidated streamer, calling the notion of “The Great Bundle” as “overblown.” But he acknowledges there is potential for history to repeat itself in the digital age—comparing leagues moving to streaming to the NFL’s decision in 1993 to take Fox’s bid over CBS, a move that ultimately launched Fox into the powerhouse it is today.
Another potential callback to the old days would be the return of pay-per-view events.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point, the NFL does a pay-per-view Super Bowl,” McCarthy says. “Think about what they can charge for that.”
Richardson agreed that pay-per-view could make a return in the streaming age, though he sees it for made-for-TV events like TNT’s “The Match” or boxing exhibitions rather than championship games.
