The WNBA would receive about $200 million per year as part of the NBA’s recently approved media rights deals, according to multiple reports. Even with an annual increase of around $140 million, the new number still concerns the executive director of the WNBA players’ union.
Executive director Terri Jackson said in a statement Wednesday that the WNBA is being undervalued at $2.2 billion over 11 years.
“We have wondered for months how the NBA would value the WNBA in its media rights deal,” Jackson said. “With a reportedly $75 billion deal on the table, the league is in control of its own destiny. More precisely, the NBA controls the destiny of the WNBA.”
The WNBA’s current media deal, which is valued at about $60 million per year, is set to expire after the 2025 season. The NBA, which owns about 60% of the WNBA, has negotiated the new deals.
The NBA’s board of governors approved that league’s next media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting Tuesday, moving the league one giant step closer to finalizing the 11-year agreements that will be worth about $76 billion. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday that the league was closing in on a new media rights deal but that other rights needed to be worked out with…
