Disney+ will broadcast Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut with Indiana Fever

The WNBA regular season opens Tuesday night with star Caitlin Clark making her debut at point guard for the Indiana Fever. The game will be streamed on Disney+, the service’s first live sporting event.

As the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer for men’s and women’s basketball, Clark helped draw a record 18.9 million viewers to the Women’s March Madness national championship game last month. The former Iowa star was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick on April 15, which alone brought 2.45 million viewers to tune in, surpassing the previous league record for a draft by 307% .

Following Clark’s debut at 7:30 p.m. ET against the Connecticut Sun, Disney+ will stream the Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces game. Disney+ has previously aired animated simulcasts of sporting events using cartoon characters in place of athletes, but Tuesday’s doubleheader is the first instance of a live sports game broadcast on the platform.

Disney nearly turned a profit in its streaming unit for the first time during its fiscal second quarter, the company reported last week. The entertainment giant is increasingly relying on sports streaming to attract its audience.

Disney’s ESPN plans to launch a full-featured direct-to-consumer streaming product in fall 2025 that will allow consumers to subscribe to ESPN without cable.

It is also a partnership with Discovery Warner Bros. And Fox Corp. to offer a sports streaming service that they plan to launch this fall, the companies announced in February.

The exclusive television rights of Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery for NBA games are currently in negotiations.

The WNBA’s existing media rights deal expires in 2025. The deal is reportedly worth about $60 million and WNBA Commissioner Engelbert has said she expects that amount to double when the rights are renegotiated.

Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business program at the University of Washington’s Olin Business School, said the WNBA’s debut Tuesday could be a “watershed moment for the league,” and that the choice to have the game on Disney+ will be crucial for the “key” to the league. demographic” of families and young people.

“They covet young fans, and that’s how young fans see their sport these days is through streaming,” Rishe told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” on Tuesday.

“I certainly see parallels between Caitlin Clark’s potential and her power in terms of increasing the reach of the WNBA and Lionel Messi, among others, and what’s happening with Apple TV,” Rishe added, referring to the soccer superstar’s 10-year deal with Major League Soccer and the league’s streaming deal with Apple TV.