This year’s March Madness tournament set off a surge in ad demand in women’s sports that has continued through this year’s upfront negotiations. Some media buyers and sellers described negotiating women’s sports deals for the first time not just in broad packages or run-of-schedule deals, but as specific line items for individual leagues and properties.

“I’ve been in the media business for just under 20 years, and this upfront is the first [in which] we’re speaking and working through upfront negotiations with media partners talking about women’s sports specifically,” said Jimmy Spano, executive VP, head of Dentsu Sports.

Spano said that in past years’ dealmaking, women’s sports were “just thrown into deals as part of the package” for clients looking to buy ad inventory in men’s sports broadcasts or as part of a ROS cable sports buy. In some cases, Spano said clients might have sought to limit the number of dollars going to women’s sports content.

This year, Spano said deals for women’s leagues such as the WNBA were line items in upfront deals for the first time compared to past markets when “we were never talking about specific dollars for that sport or negotiating inflation on WNBA.”

This has resulted in media companies including Disney and Amazon seeing significant increases in commitment to women’s sports in the upfronts.

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Inside upfront talks

Disney, which broadcasts matches in the WNBA and NWSL seasons as well as 15 NCAA women’s championships including the March Madness tournament, saw triple-digit growth in upfront revenue related to women’s sports, the company announced earlier this month. And the media company has “already seen scatter demand with the women’s [college basketball] tournament for next year, which is pretty unprecedented,” said Jim Minnich, senior VP of revenue and yield management, linear entertainment and sports, Disney Advertising.

In this year’s upfront, Disney saw the largest ad spend growth for women’s sports in the insurance category, followed by autos and auto insurance, computer software and movies. Coca-Cola Co. increased its women’s sports ad spend with Disney the most year-over-year, followed by Geico, Google, Honda and Adidas. According to Minnich, Disney’s coverage this year “represents about 60% of the women’s sports minutes in the marketplace.”

Amazon, which streams a portion of WNBA and NWSL matches on Prime Video, also saw “increased demand across all categories during this upfront for women’s sports,” said Danielle Carney, head of live sports and video sales, Amazon Ads. “Advertisers are intentionally coming to us earlier to plan ahead for the next season.”

Omnicom’s Optimum Sports saw a wider variety of clients invest in the women’s sports market this upfront, according to Jeremy Carey, chief investment officer at Optimum Sports, adding that the audience growth has drawn additional categories to the market.

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Some of this influx is in categories that may be simply seeking the reach of live sports on TV and attracted to the growing audience for women’s sports. This year, the women’s NCAA basketball championship drew more viewers than the men’s for the first time, with an average of 18.7 million viewers tuning in on ABC and ESPN versus 14.8 million tuning into the men’s championship on TBS and TNT, according to the NCAA. A 30-second ad unit in the women’s championship game cost approximately $500,000, Ad Age previously reported, about half of the $1 million to advertise in the men’s Final Four.

Both men and women are watching—on Disney’s linear networks, the audience for women’s sports is 59% men and 41% women, according to Disney Advertising. The growth in audience for women’s sports opens opportunities for more categories, said Minnich, adding that “we’re seeing advertisers that want to reach men and adults” buy in to women’s sports.

Carey also pointed to marketers in the fashion and beauty categories as examples of brands that may not have committed as much spend to sports that the growth in audience and attention will attract. Plus, opportunities are abundant beyond the live broadcasts themselves, said Carey, pointing to the storytelling and supplemental content that surround sporting events such as the Olympics.

Disney has seen demand for its women’s sports inventory grow over the last several years, said Minnich. The difference this year, however, is more advertisers being intentional in their spend in the category. For example, Minnich said advertisers may have previously invested broadly in women’s sports across the year or distribution platforms. Now, talks with advertisers have been much more intentional with investment in specific sports, such as women’s softball, or rounds of a tournament. Minnich said the NCAA women’s softball tournament is Disney’s “second biggest audience and revenue driver in the women’s sports landscape,” after basketball.

Minnich said 60% to 70% of its women’s sports inventory moves in upfront, multi-year deals. Disney announced that its multi-year sports business, which may feature advertisers committing spend to a collection of men’s and women’s sports, grew double digits during this year’s upfront. Advertisers emphasizing purpose-driven marketing in women’s sports, such as through Disney’s Level Up program, which tailors ad offerings around brands investing in the growth of women’s sports, lean more heavily into multi-year deals, said Minnich.

The number of advertisers drawn to the pure audience growth in women’s sports has also increased, Minnich added.

‘Full circle’ growth

Upfront media companies have also played a role in driving up demand for women’s sports, said Kevin Collins, executive VP, sports marketplace strategy, Magna. Collins said that following the ratings growth for the women’s NCAA basketball tournament this year, “the networks in this upfront were focusing more on women’s sports properties across all of their programming slates, so the opportunities for our clients are truly limitless with women’s sports properties.”

Compared to the past three to five years, Collins said the amount of women’s sports opportunities being pitched in the upfront from not only major broadcasters, but CTV operators and social media platforms such as X had “probably more than tripled.”

Over the past five years, Collins said clients have been shifting share of spend from TV entertainment properties to live sports, and the emphasis on women’s sports in particular has built over the past two years. This year’s women’s sports boom has created “more opportunity, more avenues to build reach, impact and sponsorships for our clients,” said Collins. “There’s only a few sponsorships that you can get in the NFL and the NBA—there’s far more now coming to the table at a lower out-of-pocket.”

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As advertisers increase investment in women’s sports, Minnich said it contributes to the “full circle” of growth—ad investment contributes to greater investment in Disney’s coverage, which boosts audience numbers and the growth of the leagues and teams.

Disney can also help advertisers extend their reach within women’s sports through its first-party audience graph. Minnich said, for example, Disney found viewers of both the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments had a high likelihood of being WNBA fans, followed by women’s tennis, Nascar and golf. Disney can find watchers of women’s sports in its entertainment content as well.

Dentsu’s Spano said the halo effect of women’s basketball, which he called the NFL of women’s sports, has driven up demand for women’s soccer and softball, and that the success of the women’s events during the 2024 Paris Olympics has continued to raise demand for women’s sports investment. 

The momentum “is not just people talking to check a box,” said Spano. “You’re seeing it in some of the inventory—if you request it, there’s limited supply now. In the past, you could get as much inventory as you wanted.”