Per Jonathan Tannenwald, the deal is worth $60M per year.
This is a huge deal for the NWSL - the prior deal with CBS was $1.5M per year in total for all league games. $60M per year amounts to $4M+ per team per season, which pays for your entire roster (salary cap of $1.375M) several times over. This should lead to substantial investment and the ability to increase that cap much more quickly.
Some details of the deal:
- Friday night matches on Amazon Prime Video in the regular season
- Saturday night double-header on Scripps'-owned ION Network
- A package of matches on CBS, Paramount+, and CBS Sports Network
- ESPN airing a package of matches across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes - simulcasting on ESPN+ in both English and Spanish. Plus English/Spanish/Portuguese rights in Latin America
Any games not on these networks will be packaged together on a direct-to-consumer product produced and distributed by the NWSL directly.
For playoffs - which will expand in 2024 with the addition of Bay Cities and Utah - Prime Video, CBS, and ESPN will split the QFs (1/1/2), CBS and ESPN will split the semis, and the final will be on CBS.
ION will air the NWSL Draft in January. Full breakdown of games per network:
- CBS/Paramount+ will have 10 regular season games, 1 quarterfinal, 1 semifinal, and the NWSL Championship
- CBSSN will have 8 regular season games
- ESPN/ABC will have 17 regular season games, 2 quarterfinals, 1 semifinal
- Prime Video will have 25 regular season Friday games, the season opener, and 1 quarterfinal
- Scripps'-owned ION will have 25 Saturday night double-headers (50 games) and a weekly pre-game show beforehand, and the NWSL Draft