''WNBA on NBC'' is an

American television Television is one of the Mass media in the United States, major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August ...

sports presentation show broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. It aired from June 21, 1997 to August 31, 2002. It consists of branding used for the presentation of

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

games. NBC showed

games from

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

as part of their ''

NBA on NBC Television broadcasts of the National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by NBC Sports has aired on American broadcast network NBC under the ''NBA on NBC'' branding throughout three incarnations in its history. The NBA was first telev ...

'' coverage before the league transferred the rights to ABC/ESPN. Coverage of the WNBA on NBC is set to return in 2026 following along with the return of the ''NBA on NBC''.

History

On June 27, 1996, NBC Sports was announced as the WNBA's first national broadcaster. The WNBA soon also had television deals in place with the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

and

Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...

joint venture channels,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

Network, respectively. At the time, NBC didn't pay television rights fees to the league's teams. A more

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

-oriented variant of

John Tesh John Frank Tesh Jr. (born July 9, 1952) is an American musician and radio and television presenter. He wrote the '' NBA on NBC'' basketball theme " Roundball Rock", and hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 20 ...

's theme, " Roundball Rock" introduced by NBC to coincide with the debut of the WNBA. NBC nationally televised the first WNBA game on June 21, 1997. The game featured the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Confer ...

facing the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. For NBC's final season with the WNBA in 2002, they again began their season's worth of coverage on

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

weekend with the

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

and Sparks. NBC would proceed to televise WNBA games on Saturday and Sunday afternoons culminating in the

Championship game A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world championships, and ...

on August 30. On July 23, 2024, NBC parent company

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

confirmed in a conference call with its investors that NBC Sports had secured an agreement with the WNBA on an 11-year media rights deal beginning in the 2026 season, marking the WNBA's return to NBC after a 24-year absence. An official announcement of the agreement was released by the NBA and NBC the following day, alongside other deals with incumbents ABC/ESPN and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. The agreement will see games broadcast on NBC,

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

and streamed on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

. NBC will also gain exclusive broadcast rights to seven WNBA semifinals series and three WNBA Finals series.

Ratings

NBC Sports' broadcast of the inaugural WNBA game between the Liberty and Sparks received a 3.8 overnight national rating. This would also serve as NBC's highest rated WNBA game. Although NBC's end-of-season average for

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

was even with

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

's average, viewership had actually increased from 1,540,000 households in 1998 to 1,607,000 in 1999. On the same token however, Nielsen ratings for NBC broadcasts of WNBA games slipped from 2 million households reached in 1997—the WNBA's inaugural season—to 1.5 million in 1999. The average

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...). Rating or rating system may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...

for the first 9 of the 10 WNBA games NBC carried in the 2001 season was only 1.1, compared to a 2.0 rating its first season.

WNBA Finals coverage

The first WNBA season concluded with what was at the time, a single championship game. The following

year A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 Synodic day, solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) ...

, the finale series into a best-of-three games series, with NBC airing the first two games and

airing the decisive third game. In

, ESPN aired the first game of the championship series while NBC covered the following two. Come the year

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, Lifetime temporarily assumed ESPN's role as the WNBA's cable outlet for the WNBA Championship. Like the year prior, Lifetime broadcast the first game while NBC covered the second and ultimately decisive game between the

Houston Comets The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two ...

and

. This marked Houston's fourth consecutive WNBA Championship. ESPN returned to the fold in the year

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, broadcasting the first game with NBC airing the second and decisive game between the

and

Charlotte Sting The Charlotte Sting were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the league's eight original teams. The team disbanded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization ...

. For NBC's final year of coverage in

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

this time, broadcast the first game with NBC again covering what would become the second and ultimately decisive game, which would be NBC's last WNBA telecast to date until 2026. NBC will gain exclusive broadcast rights to three WNBA Finals series in 2026, 2030, and 2034.

Announcers

During the WNBA's first season on NBC, the primary announcing team consisted of

Hannah Storm Hannah Lynn Storen Hicks (born June 13, 1962), known professionally as Hannah Storm, is an American television sports journalist, serving as the anchor of ESPN's ''SportsCenter''. She was also host of the '' NBA Countdown'' pregame show on ABC ...

calling the play-by-play with

Ann Meyers Ann Meyers Drysdale (born Ann Elizabeth Meyers; March 26, 1955) is an American retired pro basketball player and a sportscaster. She was a standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and at professiona ...

doing the color commentary and

Lisa Malosky Lisa Malosky is a sports reporter based in Houston, Texas. Over her career, she has covered the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), Houston Comets of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Houston&nb ...

assuming the role as sideline reporter. The following year, Storm receded her lead play-by-play duties to

Tom Hammond Thomas Taylor Hammond (born May 10, 1944) is an American former sports commentator. Hammond began working with NBC Sports in 1984. Hammond covered '' Thoroughbred Racing on NBC'' and '' Notre Dame Football on NBC''. Hammond also served as the ...

, who would call NBC's coverage of the WNBA Finals with Ann Meyers in

and in

. For the 1999 season and

seasons, NBC used

Mike Breen Michael Breen (born May 22, 1961) is an American play-by-play sports commentator. He has been the lead announcer for National Basketball Association, NBA games on NBA on ABC, ABC and NBA on ESPN, ESPN since 2006, including the NBA Finals. He is ...

as their primary play-by-play announcer. For the WNBA's final season in

Paul Sunderland Paul Benedict Sunderland (born March 29, 1952) is an American professional sportscaster who resides in Los Angeles, California. He worked as the indoor volleyball play-by-play announcer for NBC Olympics’ coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics, ...

worked with Meyers for their coverage of the

WNBA Finals The WNBA Finals is the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the league's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002. The series is played between the win ...

. *

Bruce Beck Bruce David Beck (born September 18, 1956) is the lead sports anchor at WNBC. He is in his 25th year with News 4 New York. He is also the host of Sports Final, WNBC's Sunday night sports show. Beck is the host and sideline reporter for New Yor ...

(sideline reporter) *

(play-by-play) *

(play-by-play) * Dan Hicks (studio host) *

Marion Jones Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track-and-field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 ...

(sideline reporter) *

Andrea Joyce Andrea Joyce Kuslits (born August 17, 1954), better known as Andrea Joyce, is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports after working 10 years with CBS Sports. Education Joyce graduated from the University of Michigan in 1976. Care ...

(sideline reporter) *

(color commentary) *

(sideline reporter) *

Ahmad Rashad Ahmad Rashad ( ; born Robert Earl Moore; November 19, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former professional football wide receiver. He was the fourth overall selection of the 1972 NFL draft, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was known ...

(studio host) *

Summer Sanders Summer Elizabeth SandersBurton, Bruce (July 9, 1998). "Success is driving force for Summer". ''The Sacramento Bee''. p. 1B7B Retrieved January 29, 2024. (born October 13, 1972) is an American sports commentator, reporter, television persona ...

(sideline reporter) * Beth Ruyak (studio host) *

(play-by-play, studio host) *

(play-by-play) *

Al Trautwig Alan Trautwig (February 26, 1956 – February 23, 2025) was an American sports commentator who worked with MSG Network, ABC, NBC, NBC Sports Network, and USA Network. He later did pre-game and post-game shows for the New York Knicks and New Yo ...

(sideline reporter) *

Chris Wragge Christian P. Wragge ( ; born June 19, 1970) is an American news anchor. He is the co-anchor for New York's CBS2's ''News This Morning'' and CBS2's ''News at Noon'', alongside Mary Calvi. He was previously on WCBS's 5 p.m. and 11 p. ...

(sideline reporter, studio host)

References

External links

* {{Women's National Basketball Association on television 1997 American television series debuts 2002 American television series endings 1990s American sports television series 2000s American sports television series Basketball on NBC

American English-language television shows NBC original programming