Amid a boom for women’s sports, the Professional Women’s Hockey League is expanding its TV footprint in the U.S.
The upstart league currently only has four teams in the U.S. (and another four in Canada), and has cut deals with regional sports networks including NESN and MSG Networks, as well as local TV station groups including the CBS and Fox-owned stations, Gray Media, TEGNA and Scripps. In Canada, TSN and RDS are returning as broadcast partners alongside Prime Video. Games also stream globally on YouTube.
“Across North America, we’re close now to 100 million homes where people can watch PWHL hockey. So I think it’s a big jump for us year,” says Amy Scheer, PWHL executive VP of business operations. “It’s great to be part of the local sports ecosystem, it’s great to cross-promote amongst the local teams, but over-the-air is critical for us, because we need to increase the eyeballs.
“It’s nice to be able to be young and nimble,” Scheer added. “In that sense, we’re not really beholden to, I think, the tradition and values of a league that’s been in business for quite a long time.”
The rise of PWHL comes amid something of a boom for women’s sports in the U.S., driven by leagues like the WNBA and NWSL, as well as college sports. Marketers, too, are pouring ad dollars into the space, hoping to ride the wave. USA Sports, for example, the sports division of Versant, has made women’s sports a focus point.
“It’s about time, as someone who’s been in this business for quite some time, our partnership sales are up year over year,” Scheer says. “We’ve got multiple new partners that have come into the fold, and so we just continue to see the growth and the interest in our property across the partnership space.”
And it comes as the league is preparing to expand from eight teams to at least 10 (and possibly 12) next year.
“Where those teams are is still up in the air, and we’re still going through that work, but I do think, especially in the U.S., as we expand to more markets, I think that will help in terms of the national media conversation,” Scheer says, suggesting that a national network could sign on alongside the RSNs and local broadcasters next year.