Correnti said that while brands like State Farm, Google, and Ally have been dependable supporters, she predicts that much of the increased brand spending in women’s sports this year will come from brands considered “nonendemic” to the game. Whether they’re drawn more to stories of athletes parenting while playing, transitioning into retirement, or navigating NIL, those nonendemic brands might be more likely to find their women’s sports consumers well beyond the field or court.

“Women’s sports have taken pop culture by storm, providing unforgettable moments on and off the field of play,” said Ian Schafer, president of Ensemble. “While the stories are timeless, those moments travel straight into our social media timelines, where pop culture thrives.”

While the Next is Now partners see great potential in Roku’s ability to help measure, target, and reach audiences—which Roku will also use in its first live women’s sports partnership with the Pro Volleyball Federation this year—they view its platform as only a portion of the storytelling process. By giving brands a role in production, Correnti envisions a partnership where Next is Now content is run on brand channels, turned into ad campaigns, used in college campus activations, and debuted at premiere screenings.

“As opposed to going with that traditional model where you make something, you sell something, and it’s at the mercy of a sales team that wasn’t involved in the origin story, involving brands from the onset helps to create more contextually aligned messaging, which everybody benefits from,” Correnti said.