TNT Sports and the new professional women’s basketball league Unrivaled have reached a multiyear media rights deal for exclusive live game coverage on TNT and truTV. All games will also be streamed on Max.
As part of the media rights partnership, TNT Sports has also agreed to invest an undisclosed amount in Unrivaled.
The TNT Sports platforms will begin airing the games in January, with the league’s inaugural season. The agreement will feature more than 45 primetime regular-season games three nights a week across TNT Sports platforms, with twice-weekly games on TNT as the lead network on Mondays and Fridays and additional broadcasts on truTV on Saturdays. Unrivaled live game action will tip off on Jan. 17, 2025.
The deal comes as TNT faces the possible loss of its NBA rights, which will end after the 2024-25 season unless its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is successful in its lawsuit against the league.
“Our TNT Sports portfolio centers on premium live sports and our media and equity partnership with Unrivaled deepens our commitment to further expanding the depth of top tier women’s sports programming we offer our fans and presents an opportunity for us to shape and amplify the continued growth of women’s basketball,” TNT Sports chairman Luis Silberwasser said.
Unrivaled is a three-on-three women’s basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. It features 30 of the top women’s basketball players across six teams with a compressed, full-court style of play.
Sports media titans David Levy, Co-CEO of Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E), and John Skipper spearheaded the media-rights negotiations. Both HS&E and Skipper, the former ESPN president, have invested in the league. Levy is the former head of Turner Sports, now known as TNT Sports.
"TNT Sports has a long and storied history of unparalleled coverage and production in both pro and college basketball, and I have witnessed their commitment to excellence firsthand," Levy said. "Together, Unrivaled and TNT Sports are committed to growing the league's brand and engaging fans with this exciting new three-on-three competition. By embracing a shared fan-first approach, we are dedicated to delivering a best-in-class viewing experience for the league’s inaugural season and beyond."
In-depth Unrivaled highlights and additional content will also be distributed across all TNT Sports platforms, including Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, HighlightHER and others. Unrivaled and TNT Sports will partner with Mediapro North America to support all audio and visual production components for each game.
