Dramatic increase of media rights for women’s sports
Interest in women’s sports is booming! While women’s sports today represent less than 2% of the sports market in the United States, the sector is projected to grow 250% to generate $2.5 billion in value for rights holders by 2030. Women’s sports media rights will reach $520 million by 2030 across all rights holders, according to a report by consultancy McKinsey.
“Between 2022 and 2024, revenue from women’s sports grew 4.5 times faster than that of men’s sports.”
“Yet the sector is far from reaching its full potential, leaving many billions of dollars on the table for stakeholders across the value chain”, the report says.
“We find that women’s sports could generate at least $2.5 billion in value for rights holders in the United States by 2030—a 250% increase from the $1 billion generated in 2024.”
Of this total revenue, the report says, brand sponsorships of leagues, teams, and athletes could provide the largest revenue share; ticketing to live sporting events could generate the second-highest share of value as capacity and attendance surge; broadcast media rights could bring in approximately 20% of the revenue; and merchandise sales could generate the remainder of the pie.
“Broadcast rights have the most room for growth. Rights for women’s sports are currently priced much lower than they are for men’s sports, in terms of revenue per viewer hour, and this gap presents an opportunity for rights holders to increase revenue.”
The report estimates that the total US sports market (both men’s and women’s) was $75 billion in 2024,2 meaning that the revenues generated by women’s sports today represent less than 2 percent of the total US sports market.
“We find that women’s sports are experiencing hypergrowth due to several key factors. Most importantly, fandom is taking off. The number of fans is growing, and these fans are watching more games, which is boosting broadcast viewership and game attendance at stadiums.”
“Broadcasters have taken note of the record number of fans tuning in to women’s sports and have committed more prime-time windows to women’s games in recent years. The surge in fandom, combined with more prime-time viewing opportunities, has led to higher viewership overall.”
The report stresses that women’s sports continue to be undervalued on a revenue-per-viewing-hour basis when compared with men’s sports.
“This suggests that, with maintained viewership, there is still substantial headroom for rights holders to increase the cost of media rights for televised women’s sports.”
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