Women’s sports in the United States are reaching an inflection point, with faster growth in fandom, viewership, and sponsorships. There remains a large monetization gap, however, compared with men’s sports, explain Senior Partner Eric Kutcher and coauthors. Although media rights have surged in recent years, women’s sports are still undervalued on a revenue-per-viewing-hour basis. Men’s sports have seen a CAGR of 7 percent in media revenue per viewing hour from 2017 to 2023, while women’s sports have had a negative CAGR of 3 percent during the same period. Considering that women’s sports have maintained viewership, there is significant headroom for rights holders to increase the cost of media rights for televised women’s sports.
Image description:
A line chart illustrates the media revenue per viewing hour for men’s and women’s sports from 2017 to 2024, with the y-axis representing revenue in dollars and the x-axis representing years. The chart shows 2 lines, one for men’s sports and one for women’s sports, with the men’s sports line consistently above the women’s sports line. The media revenue per viewing hour for men's sports starts at approximately $0.75 in 2017 and increases to around $1.25 by 2020, with a CAGR of +7%. In contrast, the media revenue per viewing hour for women's sports begins at around $0.45 in 2017 and decreases to approximately $0.25 by 2024, with a CAGR of –3%. The chart indicates that the gap between media revenue per viewing hour for men’s and women’s sports is widening over time, with the revenue for men’s sports growing while that for women’s sports declines.
Note: This image description was completed with the assistance of Writer, a gen AI tool.
Source: GlobalData; MoffettNathanson; Nielsen; press releases; SNL Kagan.
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To read the article, see “Closing the monetization gap in women’s sports: A $2.5 billion opportunity,” August 20, 2025.