The brain trust that runs ABC-TV and ESPN made moves this summer to help ensure that more casual eyeballs might be tempted to watch the NCAA Division I women’s indoor volleyball national-title match in December when it it moves to over-the-air ABC.
ESPN announced last week that a whopping and unprecedented 2,500-plus matches will be shown across its various linear cable-TV and streaming platforms during the upcoming collegiate season.
It’s not just that more matches will be available to die-hard fans. Significantly, the flagship ESPN channel and cable sibling ESPN2 will play a bigger role in that coverage, meaning that casual viewers in greater numbers have the opportunity to become invested in the sport during the regular season.
This should be seen as a gigantic positive for the collegiate women’s game. ESPN chose to provide more consistent exposure on channels with high visibility, demonstrating a greater confidence that women’s sports in general, and volleyball in particular, can generate viewership in a crowded and highly fractured TV landscape.
The endgame will be the NCAA championship match aired live on ABC on the Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. start time) of December 17 from Tampa, Fla. ABC is rolling the dice that volleyball on broadcast…
