Women hope new TV deal comes with bigger audience

Women’s college basketball believes it has the makings for a hit reality TV show with star power driving a marketable product that has a growing audience.

So they’re taking the ensemble on the road for the Sweet 16.

The NCAA changed the format of the tournament this year, featuring two regional sites instead of the traditional four. The games in Greenville, S.C., and Seattle are the latest step to grow the sport and show the ladies can stand on their own.

South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley believes the question of whether women’s hoops merits its own March Madness TV contract has already been answered, even though the women’s tournament loses money under the current deal.

“Somebody’s watching women’s basketball,” Staley said. “Somebody feels like we’re in high demand, and obviously the decision-makers that put us on now realize that they’ve got to keep putting us on.”

The women’s title game will be broadcast on ABC — the first appearance on network television since 1995. Women’s basketball is part of a current contract that bundles all NCAA championships under one deal except for men’s basketball and football.

The NCAA is expected to decide by the fall if the women’s tournament will become a separate entity after hiring Endeavor, a consulting firm, to determine how to take championships to market.

“It’s an exciting time. Year over year, we continue to demonstrate the value that women’s basketball brings to that space,” said Lynn Holzman, the NCAA vice president of women’s basketball. “It’ll be exciting to see what the results are of this for the sport itself, but also for the NCAA more broadly in our championships.”

TV ratings have been trending up over the last two years. This year’s regular season was the most viewed on ESPN networks in eight years and was up 11% from last season. That came on the heels of last season’s title game between South Carolina and UConn that averaged 4.85 million viewers — the most for a women’s championship game since 2004. The first round had a 27% ratings increase from last year.

“People enjoy watching close games. They like the fact that there’s some semblance of uncertainty of who’s going to win,” UConn Coach Geno Auriemma said. “There’s been so many changes in the top 10 all year long. … Teams are in, they start out at the top they go out they come back in. I think all that creates a level of excitement.”

People aren’t just tuning in during March Madness, they have also been showing up.

Attendance at the NCAA Tournament has continued to rise the past five seasons, growing by 60% in the first two rounds from an average of 4,464 in 2016 to 7,240 this year. This season had the highest attendance ever for the first two rounds.

“It makes us very bullish on women’s basketball,” Holzman said. “It is demonstrative of the growth we’ve been seeing in the sport.”

Now the NCAA hopes that growth is reflected in increased television revenue.