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USA Sports President Matt Hong said Versant hopes to make the WNBA “appointment television” following the company’s 11-year deal with the league that kicks in next year. Hong was speaking at Versant’s investor day and noted the league’s “hockey stick-like growth,” making it a “property that we feel like we can get ROI from.”
USA Network will carry at least 50 WNBA games — including three WNBA Finals –- as part of the agreement that begins with the 2026 season. He touted plans for Wednesday night doubleheaders on USA Network.
“Part of why the league chose us is because of our history and our expertise and our ability to have done this with other of our lead partners and programming in the past,” Hong said. “Our leadership team at USA Sports has a lot of experience doing this in terms of quality of production, how we program the assets, marketing, character development and storytelling.”
CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, who was moderating a panel with Hong, asked about Versant and its ability to compete with streamers, including the notion that it would be a tall task against the likes of Amazon, Apple and others.
Hong pointed to the WNBA deal as evidence that Versant isn’t only living in the same marketplace with those streamers, but, in many cases, also winning.
“Not only are we currently competing, but we’re having quite a bit of success,” Hong said. “We will go after sports that we feel like we can help grow, again with that overlay of ROI. We’ll continue to be disciplined about where we can generate a return from distribution and advertising revenue.”
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