The "wide discrepancy" in the money earned on both sides from the NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments “raises the question of whether college athletics officials have failed to capitalize on a surge in popularity in the women’s game,” according to Bachman & Simonetti of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Through the tournaments' TV rights deals, the women’s tournament earned $6.5M while the men’s earned $873M. A new deal that goes into effect next season will allocate some $65M a year for the women’s game, a “substantial jump but still a fraction of the men’s haul.” Part of the disparity “stems from the structure of the deals.” While the men’s college basketball tournament is “sold as a stand-alone entity,” the women’s is “offered as part of a bundle that encompasses 40 sports championships, from volleyball to lacrosse.” Bachman & Simonetti wrote valuing media-rights deals “is challenging” -- as it is “hard to know when there will be a sudden surge in interest like the one women’s college basketball is enjoying.” And while the final rounds of a tournament are important, "sustained viewership interest over dozens of earlier games can drive prices up.” According to data from Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN, the men’s entire tournament averaged 9.9 million viewers per game, “far surpassing the women’s,” which attracted an average of 2.2 million viewers. When the NCAA signed an eight-year, $115M-a-year deal with ESPN that will give the women’s basketball tournament a "10-fold rights increase starting next season," it happened just as Iowa G Caitlin Clark “was becoming a national sensation.” Meadowlark Media co-founder and CEO John Skipper said he is “sure that they thought they were getting fair value at the time.” NCAA President Charlie Baker “reaffirmed his confidence” in the new deal with ESPN in a Sunday interview, “calling the network a ‘great partner’” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/9).
CHANGING OF THE TIMES: YAHOO SPORTS’ Nick Bromberg noted it is “hardly a surprise" that the men’s championship game did not match the women’s in total viewers. South Carolina’s win was the “most-watched basketball game in five years at any level” and “was available via broadcast television on a Sunday afternoon, while Monday night’s game was on cable.” A season ago, UConn’s win over San Diego State on CBS also drew fewer than 15 million viewers (YAHOO SPORTS, 4/9).
