A record 216 WNBA games and tentpole events for the upcoming 2026 season will be broadcast on national television.
The league announced its full slate of nationally televised games for the first year of its new media rights deal on Wednesday. It includes games being broadcast by returning partners in the Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN), Amazon Prime Video, CBS/Paramount+ and Scripps (ION).
New television/streaming partners for the 2026 season are NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock/NBCSN) and USA Network.
With two new expansion teams starting play in the upcoming season, the league will put on a record 330 regular-season games, with all 15 teams playing 44 games.
Disney will distribute 30 games this year for the league’s milestone 30th season. ABC will broadcast 13 of those — tied for its most ever — including a season-opening doubleheader May 9 which will see the Indiana Fever face the Dallas Wings and the defending champion Las Vegas Aces face the Phoenix Mercury in a rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals.
Amazon Prime will also broadcast 30 regular-season games for 30 years of the league’s existence, along with the championship game of the Commissioner’s Cup tournament.
NBC, which broadcast the first WNBA game in 1997, is back as a media partner this season and will broadcast seven Sunday games throughout the season. Peacock, in addition to streaming regular-season games, will stream every WNBA Finals game, which will also be broadcast on either NBC or USA.
USA will broadcast 48 regular-season games, trailing only ION, which will broadcast 50 games through its “State Farm WNBA Friday Night Spotlight” series.
After broadcasting the first primetime broadcast television WNBA game last season, CBS will air eight primetime games this season.
NBA TV, which is in its 24th year distributing WNBA games, has a 15-game slate it will be broadcasting.
WNBA League Pass will deliver select live games throughout the season (local blackouts may apply), along with next-day access to every matchup through the WNBA app or at WNBA.com.
–Field Level Media
Comments