The WNBA released this year’s national broadcast schedule on Wednesday, including 28 games for Golden State. The Valkyries made an announcement about who will be working on their local broadcasts while mentioning that they will continue working with local CBS affiliates in their home broadcast area, but did not specify which channels will cover which games yet. The large number of national broadcasts includes some new partners for the season, but fans may need to go through a bit more checking to find out where to watch each game.
New Platforms
The WNBA’s newest broadcast deals all kick in this year so there are three new platforms showing games for this season. NBC will broadcast games on their national network, which includes the Valkyries hosting the Las Vegas Aces on May 31st. There will also be standalone games on their streaming platform Peacock on Mondays that include the Valkyries hosting the Los Angeles Sparks on June 15th and the Dallas Wings on August 17th. Those games will be available on some linear providers under the NBCSN branding. USA Network will carry six Golden State games this year to complete that part of the new agreement.
Returning Partners
ABC and ESPN will continue to be among the primary national broadcasters and the Valkyries have one game on ABC and two games on ESPN. Amazon Prime is also a main broadcaster in the new deals and will carry five Valkyries games. CBS remains one of the partners on extra deals that the league has signed, but they will no longer carry any games on CBS Sports Network, meaning that the Valkyries two games with them will be on their broadcast network. ION also retained their deal to carry all of the Friday games. While the Valkyries will be shown in their home market and the opposition’s broadcast area for those eight games, it is possible that those outside of those markets will have a different game on their ION affiliate when there are multiple games at the same time. Some providers offer the option to watch all of the ION games while some viewers may only have the option to watch on League Pass streaming. NBATV will carry much fewer games this year and no Golden State games are scheduled there.
Local Broadcasts
Games that the Valkyries retain local broadcast rights to will be shown on the same stations as they were last year. KPIX and KPYX will carry games in the San Francisco Bay Area, KOVR and KMAX will carry games in the Sacramento area, and KION will carry games in the Monterey Bay Area. Which games will be on which station and whether any games will not be carried at all is the information that has not been released yet.
On-air talent was also announced today, including returning color commentator Morgan Ragan, studio analyst Zena Keita, and reported Matt Lively. Jordan Kent, who recently had WNBA announcing experience with CBS, is the new primary play-by-play announcer. Kerith Burke will be the studio host as local Warriors fans will be familiar with her work on their broadcasts. Before that, she had significant women’s college basketball experience with SNY.
Preseason Game
It is possible that the local broadcast schedule is not completely announced before Saturday’s preseason game, but the plans can be seen on the current listings for the stations will carry games this year. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the game will be on KPIX while it can be seen on KMAX in the Sacramento broadcast market.
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