SPOKANE, Wash. — The West Coast Conference (WCC) and ESPN recently signed a deal that will expand their media rights relationship. According to the conference, ESPN+ will serve as the new digital home for more than 900 conference events every year.
In the new deal, ESPN will air 17 men’s basketball regular season games, six WCC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship games, and four additional events across 16 other sports each year.
The WCC’s media rights agreement also includes CBS Sports Network, which will televise 12 regular season men’s basketball games each season.
Regular-season events in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s water polo, baseball and softball that are not televised on ESPN networks or CBS Sports Network will be available on ESPN+ beginning with the 2023-24 seasons.
The first live WCC events on ESPN+ will be five women’s soccer matches on Thursday, Aug. 17.
“I am excited to expand our longstanding relationship with ESPN,” West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson said. “While continuing our strong linear agreement, the ESPN+ platform and its more than 25 million subscribers provides exceptional visibility and access to showcase our regular season and conference championship events. ESPN provides the conference and our fanbase with great exposure to our events and I look forward to the launch of the WCC on ESPN+ this week.”
“We are thrilled that ESPN+ will be the exclusive digital home of the West Coast Conference through this expanded agreement, which offers a perfect complement to the men’s basketball games and other WCC events that are already available on ESPN networks,” said Dan Margulis, ESPN senior director, programming and acquisitions. “ESPN has enjoyed a strong, collaborative relationship with the WCC for more than two decades, and we will now have the opportunity to showcase the conference’s student-athletes across even more sports.”
The WCC will feature 12 of Its 16 sports on ESPN+, including conference championship events in men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, beach volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s water polo and rowing.
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