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WNBA viewership has exploded in recent years, and ESPN women’s basketball mainstays Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo both told me they’re positive a labor deal will get done. “It would be the greatest own goal in the history of sports,” Ruocco said. “A work stoppage would be detrimental to everything they’ve been growing. And I do think that regardless of whatever posturing is happening publicly, regardless of whatever negotiating is happening, I do think you have really smart people on both sides who both recognize that this is a moment where momentum needs to continue, not be stopped.” Lobo, who reupped last week, added: “I’m really confident that both sides are going to find common ground, because there’s so much at stake now, where there hasn’t been as much at stake in past years just because the level of interest was not where it is now.”
Netflix isn’t that interested in sports, right? Well, the Athletic reported Monday evening that ESPN’s Elle Duncan is likely to become the new face of Netflix’s sports division, making her the service’s first high-profile, full-time on-air personality. This comes after many networks have said they no longer want to share their talent with Netflix as the company expands into more live events, such as Christmas Day NFL.
NBA fans get an early feast on the night before Thanksgiving, as ESPN will have its first tripleheader. Pistons-Celtics starts things off at 5 p.m., then Timberwolves-Thunder and Rockets-Warriors. The NBA on ESPN is up 24% after 11 games (1.62 million viewers). “Inside the NBA” is averaging 927,000 viewers after four shows, while “NBA Tip-Off” is averaging 716,000.
College wrestling fans are super loyal. For the two days of coverage of the recent National Duals Invitational on FloSports, which didn’t even include the finals: 21 million video views, 3 hours of time spent per user and over 1 million social engagements.
