NCAA women’s volleyball just got a big boost from ESPN and ABC.
The national-championship match, traditionally played on Saturday night and shown on either ESPN or ESPN2, will move to Sunday afternoon on ABC.
This year’s national semifinals, final and coinciding American Volleyball Coaches Association convention are in Tampa.
“The move to ABC is incredible for the sport of women’s volleyball,” said Stanford coach Kevin Hambly, who coached Illinois in the 2011 national-title match and won with Stanford in 2018 and 2019. “This opens us up to every television and streamer in the country.
“The number of potential casual viewers moves to the tens of millions. I know all of the coaches are over the moon with excitement by ABC’s commitment to volleyball.”
Kelly Sheffield, the Wisconsin coach whose Badgers won the 2021 NCAA title and who has coached in the 2013 and 2019 finals, has been outspoken about volleyball getting better TV exposure.
“I think everyone who closely follows this sport would agree, ‘it’s about damn time.’ This is really important,” Sheffield said. I have no concerns about people staying an extra day for the finals … it’s the championship!
“The increase in the number of households this will reach who previously couldn’t access it will be huge. If it’s promoted the right way I wouldn’t be surprised to see two or three times more viewers than we’ve ever had. Big day for volleyball with this news!”
Here is the news release from ESPN:
ESPN and the NCAA have announced that the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 3 p.m. ET. The semifinals will remain on Thursday, Dec. 14 on ESPN, with the first semifinal airing at 7 p.m. and the second semifinal airing 30 minutes after the completion of the first.
“NCAA women’s volleyball has been a focus of our overall growth efforts for some time now as we continue to build upon our deep commitment to women’s sports, and moving the championship to ABC is the next step in that strategy,” said Dan Margulis, ESPN senior director, Programming & Acquisitions. “With the additional coverage on our college networks and ESPN+ over the past several years, we now carry more than 2,500 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball matches each season. Adding ABC to the line-up will enhance our efforts to grow a sport with incredible talent and an already extremely loyal fanbase.”
ABC had tremendous ratings this past spring when it moved the NCAA women’s basketball final from Sunday night on ESPN to 3:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
According to Sports Media Watch, “Sunday’s LSU-Iowa NCAA women’s basketball national championship game averaged 9.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN2, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 103% from South Carolina-UConn on ESPN and ESPN2 last year (4.85M) and easily the most-watched title game in the history of the women’s tournament (records date back to 1992).”
The basketball success obviously helped the volleyball decision.
This past December, when Texas beat Louisville, the match was on ESPN2, although the semifinals were shown on ESPN.
“This move to ABC shows the growth of women’s volleyball and how fans support women’s sports,” said Texas coach Jerritt Elliott, whose Longhorns won it all in 2012 and played in three other finals before winning again this past December.
Television and streaming has been a battle for volleyball.
The first-round matches continue to be shown only on ESPN+, a subscription service. The regional finals are shown all in a row on the second Saturday, all on ESPNU.
“I grew up watching Wide World of Sports on ABC, when ‘The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,’ started off the show every Sunday,” said Nebraska coach John Cook, who won NCAA finals in 2000, 2006, 2015 and 2017, and played in two others.
“Now we have a chance to be on ABC showcasing our sport. This is awesome for women’s college volleyball to have the national championship match televised on ABC. It further demonstrates the growth of our game and the progress that has been made in the last few years in both attendance numbers and television ratings.”
Larry Hamel analyzed the TV ratings for us after the NCAA Championship, when viewership was actually down:
The NCAA final this past Saturday night on ESPN2 backtracked to 786,000 total-average viewers in a 2-hour, 5-minute telecast, a 33.8% drop from the 1,188,000 who tuned on December 18, 2021, when Wisconsin defeated Big Ten rival Nebraska in a five-set, 3-hour, 35-minute thriller.
Won in a sweep by Texas over Louisville, the title match on Saturday, December 17, finished 15th on the day on the widely referenced Showbuzz cable TV chart with a .22 rating (translating to 286,000 viewers) in the 18-49 demographic, a 33.3% drop from the .33 rating it posted last year, when it ranked sixth. The match in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday night drew a sell-out crowd of 16,952 to the CHI Health Center.
Read Hamel’s entire story here.
Hamel said this about moving volleyball to ABC:
“The decision by ABC and ESPN to move a sport that falls into the niche category such as collegiate women’s indoor volleyball from cable TV to a broadcast platform might be a precursor to an even broader migration of such events away from cable. The subscription base for cable eroded 9.9% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to Variety, and reached its lowest point since 1992.
“With pay TV reaching only 58.5% of TV households in the United States, televising niche sports marquee events such as the NCAA women’s indoor volleyball championship game very well could be far more profitable if it were available in all of the 123.8 million American TV households. Even going against the National Football League juggernaut on a Sunday in December, the 2023 NCAA volleyball final might be expected to generate a total-average viewership approaching 2 million on over-the-air ABC.”
Kentucky won the 2021 NCAA title.
“This is a huge step forward for women’s volleyball,” Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said. “The growth of our sport and fan interest has been massively growing over the years. Being on ABC will be a significant enhancement to this incredible game.”
Jaime Gordon is the new executive director of the AVCA.
“This is a significant event for volleyball. There has been a great deal of commitment and cooperation from the NCAA, AVCA, and ESPN/ABC to make this happen,” Gordon said. “We will need the volleyball community to rally behind this in order to capitalize on the opportunity.”
Idaho State athletic director Pauline Thiros is the outgoing chair of the NCAA Division I volleyball committee.
“Airing the NCAA women’s volleyball championship match on ABC is indicative of the passionate following this great sport and these student athletes continue to garner and deserve,” Thiros said in the ESPN news release. “The collaboration between ESPN, NCAA championships staff, and NCAA volleyball coaches to create greater exposure for women’s volleyball has been stellar, and will further enhance the experience for our athletes and audience alike in years to come.
“I am very optimistic about the future success of this event, and its position on major platforms. Kudos to ESPN and its executives for their commitment to showcasing the tremendous talent and athleticism NCAA volleyball has to offer.”
Lee Feinswog is the publisher and editor of VolleyballMag.com
Contact him at Lee@VolleyballMag.com
