{"id":779966,"date":"2026-07-23T14:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/779966\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:20:12","slug":"fans-want-greater-access-to-womens-sports-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/779966\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans Want Greater Access to Women\u2019s Sports Content"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>              <a class=\"image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sports-poll-by-ssrs-highlights-1-scaled.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sports-poll-by-ssrs-highlights-1-scaled.png\" alt=\"sports poll by ssrs highlights\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Young stars have pushed fandom to new heights over the <a href=\"https:\/\/ssrs.com\/insights\/can-a-healthy-caitlin-clark-drive-wnba-to-new-high-in-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">past three seasons,<\/a> and its top star, Caitlin Clark, is back after missing most of the last season. Thanks to the boost in popularity, a record 216 games are being broadcast nationally in 2026. Increased exposure may help address one of the biggest roadblocks to fan engagement \u2013 limited access to games on TV and streaming.<\/p>\n<p>Access is a challenge across the entire sports industry, but women\u2019s sports faces even greater issues with providing fans with access to games today.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Access-to-Womens-Sports-Content.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Access-to-Womens-Sports-Content.png\" alt=\"Access to Women's Sports Content\"\/><\/a><br \/>\nFor nearly a decade, Sports Poll has asked fans about their ability to access the sports they want to watch.<\/p>\n<p>Fans are asked to consider all the sporting events they can watch on TV or stream. In 2023, we also began asking fans about their ability to access the women\u2019s sports they want to watch. While 59% of sports fans say they can access all or most of the sports they want to watch in general, only 42% of women\u2019s sports fans say they have access to all or most of the women\u2019s sports they want to watch. Fans recognize that access is more limited compared to the major (male-dominated) U.S. leagues. As fandom increases for the WNBA and other women\u2019s pro and college sports, fans want to see more of these games on TV and streaming services.<\/p>\n<p>However, a growing number of national broadcasts also means a larger number of media partners for the WNBA (including seven partners for 2026). This can create other challenges by requiring fans to have more subscriptions to watch games and making it more difficult to find the games they want to watch.<\/p>\n<p>Will these challenges impact perceived access for fans of the WNBA and other women\u2019s sports? We\u2019ll be watching.<br \/>\nWant to receive our sports research going forward? \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                            Sign up for Sports Poll\u2122 Highlights<\/p>\n<p>Like this content? Share it with others!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young stars have pushed fandom to new heights over the past three seasons, and its top star, Caitlin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-779966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}