Warner Bros Discovery’s TNT Sports activities on Wednesday signed a multiyear media-rights take care of Unequalled, the newly shaped 3-on-3 ladies’s professional basketball league that suggestions off subsequent yr that includes a slew of WNBA stars that can be coming off that league’s highest-profile season but.
The settlement requires 45 reside regular-season matchups three nights per week in primetime throughout TNT (Mondays and Fridays) and its WBD sibling truTV on Saturdays. All video games to be streamed reside on WBD’s Max.
As a part of the deal, TNT Sports activities may also put money into the league, which was based by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. The inaugural season opens January 17.
“Our TNT Sports activities portfolio facilities on premium reside sports activities and our media and fairness partnership with Unequalled deepens our dedication to additional increasing the depth of prime tier ladies’s sports activities programming we provide our followers and presents a chance for us to form and amplify the continued development of girls’s basketball,” TNT Sports activities chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser stated immediately.
Unequalled buyers David Levy, co-CEO of Horizon Sports activities & Experiences and former head of Turner, and former ESPN boss John Skipper spearheaded the media rights negotiations for the league.
The three-on-3 league will function six groups of 5 gamers every, with a listing of dedicated gamers that already contains WNBA stars Stewart, Collier, Angel Reese, Arike Ogunbowale, Kelsey Plum and Brittney Griner amongst others; 4 roster spots stay as of Wednesday.
The groups will play in Miami on a compressed full courtroom (see the first-look picture above), not like the lads’s professional Big3 league which performs on a half-court. The eight-week Unequalled season will see the groups play a round-robin schedule, with the highest 4 groups making the playoffs. There may also be a 1-on-1 event in February.
The deal is the most recent from Warner Bros Discovery because it seems to fill the sizable void that can quickly be left by the NBA. After almost 4 a long time of airing the league’s video games, WBD was outmaneuvered by NBCUniversal, which claimed rights alongside Amazon and Disney/ESPN beginning in 2025. WBD has sued the league, claiming it was denied its authorized proper to match Amazon’s provide, however most authorized and media observers see the case as a longshot to prevail.
WBD can also be a companion in Venu Sports activities, a joint streaming enterprise whose deliberate launch earlier this yr was blocked by a federal choose on antitrust grounds.
Amid the authorized wrangling, WBD has inked offers for lower-tier sports activities like Mountain West faculty soccer and the French Open tennis event. It additionally licensed early-round video games within the newly expanded Faculty Soccer Playoff from ESPN. Whereas Venu stays in limbo, WBD has additionally been planning to launch a $10-a-month sports activities tier on its flagship Max streaming service. Whereas the NBA seems to be in its last yr of eligibility, Max has entry to NHL and Main League Baseball video games, in addition to NCAA March Insanity basketball.
