The WNBA’s new seven-partner media deal is one of the most expansive in sports, but it’s being met with widespread skepticism over the league’s financial health.

“The WNBA has seven league rights partners, it’s kind of wild—ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock, USA, Amazon, CBS, Ion, NBA TV,” reports Ryan Glasspiegel of FOS Sports about the multiple mediums that are available for broadcasting the games.

Quite unusual, if it can be said, because no other sports league has this many broadcast partners. Leagues like the NFL, MLB, NHL, and even the NBA typically have around 3-4 primary partners. The NFL comes the closest with deals across ESPN/ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC/Peacock, Amazon, and NFL Network, but still falls short of matching the WNBA stat.

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With ESPN/ABC, the WNBA has had a longstanding partnership, which was renewed back in 2024. They broadcast regular-season games, playoffs, and part of the WNBA Finals rotation, and are the undisputed flagship broadcasters, but now they will have allies.

NBC/Peacock has also made their return to the fray and joined up with the WNBA in 2026, and will simultaneously stream regular-season and playoff games via Peacock. Same with the other league partners like Amazon Prime Video, who renewed their arrangement in 2024, while CBS continues to air select national broadcasts.

Ion again is more for the casual viewers and more of an affordable option for those who just choose to watch for leisure rather than hardcore fanatics. Naturally, this unique arrangement for the WNBA brought out fans who laid out their opinions on the matter.

WNBA Fans Aren’t Too Pleased With The WNBA Partners

With so many partners, you would think Cathy Engelbert is leading the most financially productive leagues that the world has to offer. But hold up, that is not at all the case. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

“And they still lose money hand over fist,” said a commenter on how the league continues to operate at a financial loss.

The comment was unabashed, but chose to highlight the situation of the WNBA. Having seven partners increases visibility but does not guarantee profitability. While rights deals bring in new money, the WNBA’s overall revenue (~$200M annually from 2026 onward) is still modest compared to operating costs and far below leagues like the NBA or NFL. So that’s something that hasn’t really changed despite the added viewership.

Speaking of viewership, has it really reached out to the fans the way it should?

“And not a single one of them did a free agency show?!? And the one that did the expansion draft just sent us an email,” said a commenter who seemed to have a bone to pick with the partners for limited broadcast.

As the WNBA handled the situation with free agency and the expansion draft, the presentation was poor. ESPN chose to present picks via press releases, emails, and online updates, with no televised or streaming show, which meant that even after having so many options at their disposal to stream the event, they chose not to use those avenues. This could have easily gotten in a lot of eyes on the product, but that was not the case.

While another commenter had a very different perspective on the matter altogether.

“And people complain that MLB has too many partners,” said a fan in their own sarcastic style.

This complaint with the MLB has always existed as people believe the games in the MLB are spread too thin across different networks and streaming services, making it harder to follow consistently. But even then, the MLB still doesn’t have as many partners as the WNBA.

At present, the MLB has four primary national partners in ESPN, Fox, TBS, and Apple TV+/Peacock, which again is three short of what the WNBA is doing.

“Being a fan of the WNBA & NBA now feels like a subscription management job… not a hobby anymore,” said another fan who also feels that having so many options sometimes presents a bit of a challenge.

The fragmentation of the WNBA and NBA is quite a problem, and the fan who is having to navigate across this dilemma, which channel to tune into, is seriously dealing with a whole host of issues on their plate.

To watch all WNBA and NBA games, fans often need multiple subscriptions: cable (ESPN, TNT, USA, CBS), streaming (Peacock, Amazon Prime Video), plus Ion and NBA TV, and then it’s a whole load of confusion that follows, which becomes a headache of sorts.

“Very few WNBA games were planned for NBC even before the splitting off of USA Network. They and the USA do have the ’26 Finals,” said another fan

Although NBC was added as one of the WNBA’s seven national media rights partners in 2026, the actual number of games scheduled for NBC broadcast is very limited, says the fan. Most of NBCUniversal’s WNBA coverage is being pushed to its cable arm (USA Network) and streaming service (Peacock).

Initially, it was expected that the NBC would carry a significant slate of WNBA games, but in reality, only a handful are scheduled for broadcast TV. Most of NBCU’s WNBA coverage is on USA Network and Peacock, not NBC itself.

While NBC is being presented as a primary partner, its relevance is being cut down because of ESPN and Amazon. So there are quite a few issues that are crossing up and need immediate attention.

But the sad part is that everything is done by now, and there is no way to break out of this situation. Cathy Engelbert and team know this and did so after careful consideration, but has that been fruitful, or does the management really need to think this through before coming back in 2027