USA Sports’ WNBA playbook leans on cross-network promotion and longer studio windows

About three weeks into its first WNBA season, USA Sports is building its programming and marketing approach around cross-network promotion, longer studio windows and a closer link between its sports and entertainment teams, according to two executives overseeing the launch.

The channel began carrying WNBA games this season as part of the league’s new national media rights agreement, which includes six media partners.

USA Sports’ package covers 48 regular-season games, first-round playoff coverage and five of seven possible games in the 2026 WNBA Finals. Wednesday-night doubleheaders anchor the schedule, with exclusivity in those windows.

The channel is also producing wrap-around studio coverage every Wednesday, with postgame coverage airing for most games on the schedule.

A new sports operation inside Versant

Versant was spun out of Comcast last year, taking with it a portfolio of cable networks that includes USA Network, MS NOW, CNBC, Golf Channel and E!.

The new company stood up USA Sports as a dedicated sports brand within that group, with the WNBA package as its first major rights deal.

“WNBA is seen as a Versant priority, not a USA Sports priority. And that’s set from the top down,” said Frank Tanki, chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports at Versant.

Tanki joined the company in late June 2025 and said he spent the second half of the year staffing up across marketing, social and digital ahead of the 2026 launch.

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“We had a bit of a runway at the end of last year to staff up,” Tanki said.

Tanki said several functions, including media planning, research and brand strategy, are organized across all of Versant rather than within individual networks. He said the structure is designed to surface audience overlap between properties and route promotion accordingly, citing internal research showing crossover between CNBC viewers and WNBA fans as one example informing the launch plan.

“When you’re a top priority of USA Sports, you’re a top priority of Versant as a corporation,” Brady said. “There’s no pillars at our company. If something’s good for sports, it’s good for Versant.”

Programming approach

Mariel Brady, vice president of programming at USA Sports, said the schedule was built around Wednesday nights, with the goal of establishing a regular viewing habit, and then layering in marquee matchups on other nights.

“The first step was just trying to get the best matchups we possibly could on Wednesday nights, and then chasing the best possible matchups on other nights,” Brady said.

She noted that USA Network has carried sports for decades, including the Masters in the 1980s, an early televised NBA Draft and English Premier League matches, but said the WNBA package represents the first dedicated, branded sports operation on the channel in its current form.

Brady said the production plan includes pregame coverage and extended postgame windows, a contrast to the scheduling pressure on broadcast networks that carry multiple live properties.

“We’re not going to rush off the air with postgame coverage,” Brady said. “We’re going to cover this league as it deserves to be covered.”

Cross-promotion and entertainment tie-ins

“There are stars that are ready to just take off,” Brady said. “We’re excited to help build those stars, obviously on the court, but then off the court using all the entertainment assets that Versant has to offer.”

With the season underway, both executives said the playbook now centers on using Versant’s entertainment platforms to push WNBA coverage beyond the league’s existing fan base.

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Tanki pointed to appearances by former WNBA player Renee Montgomery at the Met Gala earlier this spring, coordinated through E!, as early examples of the approach.

“We’ve got that sports machine. We’ve got great sports-based team members, but we also bring the ability to focus on other parts of entertainment, of lifestyle, music, fashion, and we’re structured that way to do it,” Tanki said.

The social and digital team reports into Tanki’s marketing organization. He said the setup shortens the path between an on-court moment and a cross-platform promotion, and that the group is also working with Versant’s live events team, which handles red carpet coverage for events including the Critics’ Choice Awards.

“There’s definitely a hustle and a desire that, as a marketing person, I really respond to,” Tanki said. “It’s a little bit of an underdog hustle side to it.”

Working with the league

Brady said the WNBA’s structure, with an expanded group of national media partners, has required the league to coordinate scheduling and content across more outlets than in previous seasons. 

“It’s a gargantuan task to keep everybody happy,” Brady said. “They know that they have six new media partners, and they have to do things differently than they have in the past. They’ve been an incredible partner so far.”

Brady, who said she attended the inaugural WNBA All-Star Game as a teenager and owned Rebecca Lobo and Teresa Witherspoon jerseys, said the company views the league as a property that can extend beyond sports programming.

“We don’t view WNBA as a sports-only property,” she said. “You’re going to see us helping WNBA enter the cultural conversation.”

Tanki said the company’s goal for the first year is to establish a reputation among rights holders as a partner that can move quickly across marketing, production and digital. He acknowledged USA Sports is smaller in scale than several competing media companies.

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“We may not be the biggest platform versus some of the more established, but I think our ability to innovate, to cross-promote across our entire portfolio, our ability to move quickly, is going to really stand us out,” Tanki said.

“For WNBA, as active as they’ve been over their history, it’s kind of a perfect partner to start with,” Tanki said.

Brady said the measure of a successful first year would include a competitive postseason and growth in viewership across the schedule.

“In a year, we hope that we have had a WNBA finals that went to game seven and it broke viewership records,” Brady said.

The WNBA season continues with Wednesday-night doubleheaders on USA Sports through the regular season.