The 2023-24 season has marked a significant milestone for women’s basketball, with notable achievements and records. As the numbers from the NCAA Women’s and Men’s Championship tournaments are being reported, GMA’s Robin Roberts revealed a significant gender inequity in revenue generation this morning.
Here’s the comparison of TV viewership numbers between women’s and men’s title games announced by Roberts:
- The women’s title game between South Carolina and Iowa attracted an average of 18.7 million viewers.
- During Connecticut’s back-to-back national championship campaign, the men’s title game averaged less at 14.8 million.
There’s a massive disparity in television rights revenue by gender:
- The NCAA Women’s Tournament earned $6.5 million for its television rights with ESPN.
- The NCAA Men’s Tournament’s television rights with CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV generated a significantly higher revenue of $873 million.
- The percentage difference in revenue highlights a disparity of 99%, according to Rachel Bachman.
The new eight-year, $920 million contract with ESPN, agreed upon in January, could potentially usher in a transformative era for women’s basketball.
Ralph D. Russo predicts that the deal, which grants the network exclusive rights to “40 championships, including the Division I women’s basketball tournament,” could be a game-changer. NCAA president Charlie Baker estimates that an “impressive 57% of the value of the deal — or $65 million annually — is tied to the women’s March Madness tournament.”
