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Where men’s sports often receive brand and broadcast support based on their potential, proponents of women’s sports note that investment in their game hinges on proof of its value.
This year’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament—with help from Caitlin Clark and Dawn Staley—just provided its broadcasters at the Walt Disney Company and their brand partners a small forest’s worth of receipts.
When the second round of the tournament aired more than a month ago, Disney’s ESPN noted its 1.4 million average viewers represented a 121% increase from a year earlier. With the Sweet 16 (2.4 million average, +96% year-over-year increase), the Elite 8 (6.2 million, up +184%), the Final Four (10.8 million, +138%) and Staley’s crowning moment in the championship game (18.9 million—4 million more than the men’s game—up +90%), this year’s women’s March Madness was the most-watched in ESPN’s history—with viewership for the later rounds constituting the best on record.
That energy carried over into ESPN’s broadcast of the WNBA Draft, which drew 2.45 million viewers (and a peak of nearly 3.1 million) to watch a packed rookie class led by Clark. That’s nearly four times the previous draft record for viewership—including the most-viewed WNBA Countdown show ever—and the most viewers the WNBA has drawn to any broadcast since 2000.
“The audience growth is a reflection of the momentum that has been building,” said Danielle Brown, svp of data enablement and category strategy for Disney Advertising. “We’ve been invested in women’s sports from Day One over the past 40-plus years, and now it’s reaching a point where they’re surpassing some of the men’s sports that are on our air … while we are deeply invested in both, we’re seeing the tide is turning.”
While increased viewership had helped visibility for women’s basketball and its case for more time on Disney networks—which are already touting ESPN and ESPN2’s slate of up to 52 Google-sponsored WNBA regular-season games, ABC’s AT&T WNBA All-Star Game and the company’s 27 Google-backed WNBA playoff matchups—it’s good news for brand sponsors as well. Television data and analytics firm EDO noted that women’s March Madness increased ad engagement across multiple categories, including financial services, consumer products, insurance, movies and restaurants—with that consumer excitement continuing into the WNBA Draft.
Much as fans will flock to a media outlet that showcases their sport, they’ll support a brand that invests in the game.