NWSL announces new media partnerships with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports

The National Women’s Soccer League announced today that it had reached a media distribution agreement with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports. The agreement was also said to be worth $60 million a year, evidently more than the $1 million a year the NWSL had agreed to in the previous agreement.

The domestic media partnership, which has been signed for four years, will begin in 2024 and 118 matches will be broadcast on the various platforms announced.

The broadcast schedule is as follows:

• Each regular season will begin with Friday night matches on Prime Video
• The following Saturday night will include double-header on Scripps’-owned ION network.
• A package of regular season matches will air on The CBS Television Network and stream live on Paramount+, with additional matches airing on CBS Sports Network.
• ESPN will air a package of matches across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes (Spanish). All NWSL matches on ESPN platforms and on ABC will stream live on ESPN+in English and Spanish. The package also includes English, Spanish and Portuguese-language rights in Latin America.

For the playoffs, set to expand in 2024 to eight teams due to the introduction of new teams Bay FC and Utah Royals FC, Prime Video and CBS will have the rights to one quarterfinal each, while ESPN/ABC will air the other two quarterfinals. CBS and ESPN/ABC will each have a semifinal. CBS Sports continues as the home of the NWSL Championship match each season in primetime on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

ION will air the NWSL Draft live in January. That date will be announced in the future.

CBS

• Minimum of 21 Games
• Regular season:
• CBS and Paramount+: Minimum of 10 games per season
• CBS Sports Network: Minimum of 8 games per season
• Playoffs:
• CBS and Paramount+: 1 quarterfinal per season
• CBS and Paramount+: 1 semifinal per season
• CBS and Paramount+: NWSL Championship

ESPN/ABC

• 20 games
• Regular season:
• 17 regular season games per season
• Playoffs:
• 2 quarterfinals per season
• 1 semifinal per season

Prime Video

• 27 games
• Regular season:
• 25 Friday night games per season
• 1 season opening kickoff match
• Playoffs:
• 1 quarterfinal per season

Scripps Sports

• 50 games
• 25 exclusive Saturday night double-headers on ION, games with 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET starts.
• Weekly studio show leading off each doubleheader Saturday at 7 p.m. ET
• 2024 NWSL Draft

Teams can also still agree on local TV deals should they decide to with their local media markets.