NWSL inks new 4-year rights deal with ESPN, CBS, Prime and Scripps - ESPN

The NWSL announced a new four-year media rights deal that will partner the U.S. women's topflight with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports in 2024.

The news marks the upcoming end of an exclusive three-year deal with CBS Sports that will wrap up after Saturday's 2023 NWSL Championship match between NJ/NY Gotham FC and OL Reign.

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«These partnerships fundamentally change the game for our league and the players who take the pitch each week,» NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in a press release. «On behalf of the NWSL, our owners and players, I want to commend CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps for investing in our league and affirmatively declaring to the marketplace that this league is exciting, valuable, and important.

»We have taken great care to ensure our games are discoverable by increasing our reach in order to expose new audiences to everything that makes our league special, without compromising the economic value of our product. This is the beginning of our future."

NWSL said the deal is worth $240 million to the league, a massive increase from the three-year $4.5m agreement that was previously in place with CBS.

Earlier this year, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman reported that viewership on CBS and its streaming affiliate Paramount+ was up 21 percent year-over-year to last season.

Starting next season, NWSL matches will be split through a minimum of 21 games for CBS Sports, 20 for ESPN/ABC, 27 for Prime Video and 50 for Scripps Sports. All NWSL matches on ESPN and ABC will be available live on ESPN+ in both English and Spanish. The new media rights deal also includes Spanish, Portuguese and English-language rights for Latin America through