Unrivaled, the new basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, has a TV rights deal. It reached a multi-year deal with TNT Sports, and will have its games broadcast on TNT and TruTV and streamed on Max, the network announced Wednesday.
TNT Sports also invested in the league and has taken an equity stake.
Unrivaled is set to tip off on Jan. 17, 2025 and has already attracted some of the best women’s basketball players in the world. Along with its co-founders, Unrivaled has gotten commitments from Angel Reese, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, Jewell Loyd, Kahleah Copper, Rhyne Howard and Arike Ogunbowale.
The league is taking a collaborative approach to its business model by giving equity to top players who have agreed to join. It has also promised to pay the highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history.
The league will have 30 players and six teams in total. The teams will play in the winter during the WNBA’s offseason.
The deal will give Unrivaled two broadcast windows during the week on TNT — Monday and Friday nights — as well as a Saturday night TruTV broadcast.
This will also allow TNT Sports to continue carrying professional basketball. It had been one of the NBA’s rights partners for more than 30 years, but is entering the last season of its current media rights agreement with the league. The company is suing the NBA to retain their rights and claims it has matching rights that allow it to do so. The NBA disputes that and reached a deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon for its next media deal.
Required reading
(Photo: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
