Women’s basketball drew massive viewership, but little financial reward

The Street

TheStreet’s Caroline Woods brings you the biggest business news of the day, including what investors are watching and why there’s still a huge revenue disparity between men’s and women’s basketball.

Transcript

00:00I'm Caroline Woods reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:03Here's what we're watching on the street today.

00:05Wall Street is reacting to the producer price index, which measures the change in wholesale

00:09prices.

00:10The report came in lower than expected, with producer prices increasing just 0.2 percent

00:15from last month, lower than Wall Street's estimate of 0.3 percent.

00:20In other news, while the NCAA women's basketball final beat the men's in terms of ratings,

00:25it's still losing out on the rewards.

00:28The women's final between Iowa and South Carolina drew 18.9 million viewers, a little

00:33over 4 million more viewers than the men's.

00:36However, the women's bracket received 99 percent less money in television rights than their

00:41counterparts.

00:42The women's side earned just $6.5 million over the course of the tournament, while the

00:46men's received $873 million.

00:50But there are a couple of reasons that could explain the huge gap.

00:53Despite the championship game ratings, the men's tournament had a much higher viewership

00:57over the course of the entire tournament.

00:59They drew an average of 9.9 million viewers per game, four times more than the women.

01:05Another reason is the structure of each deal.

01:07The men's tournament was sold as a standalone event, while the women's was packaged with

01:1140 other sports championships.

01:14In January, the NCAA signed an eight-year, $115 million deal with ESPN that will give

01:20women's basketball a quote, tenfold rights increase starting next season.

01:25That'll do it for your daily briefing from the New York Stock Exchange.

01:28I'm Caroline Woods with The Street.

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