USA was always going to be part of the new WNBA media mix, but following its spinoff from NBCUniversal, it has officially reached its own separate rights deal with the league.
Versant — the Comcast spinoff consisting of NBCUniversal cable networks — has reached an 11-year media rights deal with the WNBA that will include regular season, playoff and Finals games on USA Network, it was announced Tuesday. USA initially obtained WNBA rights as part of Comcast’s NBA rights deal, but the spinoff necessitated a separate agreement.
USA will carry at least 50 WNBA games per year, including a regular Wednesday night regular season slate that was previously disclosed by Versant CEO Mark Lazarus in May. It will also carry WNBA Finals games “in select years,” which should be assumed to mean any years in which the series airs on the NBC broadcast network. That includes next season, the first of the new rights deal.
The WNBA agreement is the third rights deal in the short history of Versant, following the company’s recent extension with the USGA and a deal to carry League One Volleyball (LOVB). The LOVB deal is the only Versant rights deal thus far that is fully separate from its longtime affiliation with NBCUniversal.
Under the NBA media rights deal reached last season, USA, NBC and Peacock were to combine for 50 WNBA games per year. Given that NBC and Peacock will still carry their own slate of games, the new 50-game USA schedule would necessarily have to include more games on the cable network than initially allotted.
With the Versant deal, the WNBA enters next season with a minimum of five media partners — Disney (ESPN/ABC), Comcast (NBCU), Versant (USA), Amazon (Prime Video) and Scripps (ION). The league has also been expected to reach a media rights extension with CBS Sports.
Consisting of USA, Golf Channel, CNBC, the soon-to-be-rebranded MSNBC, and Syfy, Versant is expected to formally launch by year’s end.