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The GIST: FIFA could turn the lights off. Yesterday, president Gianni Infantino threatened a Women’s World Cup (WWC) broadcast blackout in five major European countries — the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, and Italy — due to lowball offers from media companies to air the tournament.

The details: Infantino said broadcasters pay around $100M to $200M to show the men’s World Cup and therefore should offer about 50% to 60% of that to air the WWC, based on the audience percentage it commands. Instead, FIFA received European bids of only $1M to $10M — 20x to 100x lower than the men’s fee, per Infantino’s calculations.

• British broadcasters BBC and ITV have reportedly offered $11.2M for July’s WWC, the highest offer FIFA received from the aforementioned countries. An Italian broadcaster, meanwhile, offered just $1M for the tourney. As if!

• If FIFA can’t strike broadcast deals in western Europe, it may air the WWC on FIFA+ or YouTube. Streaming women’s soccer matches for free on YouTube has worked for DAZN but would decrease WWC revenue and potentially viewership.

The risks: Despite an undeniable uptick in European demand for women’s soccer, broadcasters are wary about the time difference’s impact on audience numbers during this year’s tournament Down Under. They are also allegedly uncertain about how to value the tourney since FIFA has never sold unbundled WWC rights before.

The context: Former soccer exec and player Moya Dodd argues this is a mess of FIFA’s own making after consistently devaluing the women’s game. She suggests cooperation with media companies and that FIFA should calculate the true value of WWC TV rights and sponsorships after historically bundling commercial ops with the men.

• The process to assign accurate valuations is reportedly already underway. FIFA recently evaluated the tourney’s value for the first time ever, specifically appraising WWC broadcast rights at $300M. About damn time.

The lingering questions: Infantino is likely correct to argue that WWC broadcast rights should be higher, but does FIFA have enough leverage to pull off this extremely aggressive negotiating tactic? And how much course correction is required to end the industry’s historic habit of devaluing women’s soccer?

• FIFA and the broadcasters continue to insist it’s the other party’s problem to solve, but there’s a role for both to play in finally valuing the WWC accurately. Perhaps the biggest question of all is: Who will actually be the one to fix it?

The GIST: The fate of the universe cable may rest in ESPN’s hands. In a Monday interview, chairman Jimmy Pitaro said it’s “a ‘when,’ not an ‘if’” the broadcaster moves its entire slate to streaming service ESPN+, which would change the entire sports broadcasting landscape as we know it.

The current model: ESPN operates its cable and streaming businesses separately, though the verticals are beginning to converge due to industry trends. TV generated $28B in revenue last year, and the broadcaster has 74M cable subscribers, down from 99M a decade ago.

The streamer: Most things are trending upwards for ESPN+ — it has 25M subscribers, aired 27K live sporting events in 2022, total viewership grew 53% YoY, and women’s sports viewership doubled. Profits are a different story, though — ESPN+ lost $400M in the last fiscal year and makes an average of only $5.53 per subscriber a month, despite charging $10.

• Its bundle option with Disney+ and Hulu also plays a factor. A whopping 61% of subscribers are from the discounted package, and though crossover content like Hulu’s Welcome to Wrexham benefits ESPN+, it decreases the monthly revenue generated per subscriber.

The context: Even if digital platforms are increasingly popular, especially among women’s sports fans, the switch from cable to streamer is a complicated one. Recent JPMorgan analysis said it’s “unclear” how digital platforms will match cable’s profitability because of low subscription costs and high churn rates.

• The report also argued that the surge in sports media rights fees is “unsustainable” as cable subscription rates fall, even if some properties ink new and improved deals in the coming years. Fasten your seatbelt.

The lingering questions: King of cable ESPN will likely be the one to ring its death knell but will also have to answer a handful of questions as it charts a streaming-first path: How does ESPN turn its digital offering into a massive revenue-generating business, and what is the knock-on effect for the rest of the industry?

• The JPMorgan report suggests media rights figures may tumble once streaming takes over, but it’s also worth wondering if everyone in the broadcast business — advertisers included — will ditch TV when ESPN does. Watch this space.

In this newsletter, we like to highlight other organizations and their big wins, but allow us to have the spotlight for just a minute.

1M: We have over 1M GISTers across our growing ecosystem of newsletters, socials, and podcasts.

83%: The percentage of GISTers who prefer to support brands that support women’s sports and media.

91%: The ratio of GISTers who are interested in products we choose to share with them.

Assuming you’re a business person or care deeply about women’s sports, we’d love to talk about how we can authentically connect your company with our sought after audience of underserved sports fans.

Yesterday, Google said search interest in the WNBA Draft hit an all-time high in the U.S. this year, while the Indiana Fever was the league’s most-searched team in April. No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston and No. 10 pick Zia Cooke were the most-searched players, while No. 22 pick Alexis Morris and Cooke had the most queries about their draft day ‘fits.

• As for the NWSL, the most-searched topic last month was the Bay Area, which won an expansion club on April 4th. Portland and Bend, Oregon and Butte-Bozeman, Montana were the top three metropolitan areas for NWSL searches.

The streamer launched DAZN Women’s Football yesterday, a free, ad-supported television (FAST) network. The soccer channel will be available across Europe, South America, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand and will feature a variety of women-specific programming, including live games and a docuseries. Kicking (gr)ass.

Late last week, the NCAA filed a brief to block class certification in House v. NCAA, the federal antitrust lawsuit filed by student-athletes including TCU hooper Sedona Prince. College sports’ governing body argues it would be “impossible” to define the class in a class action lawsuit and that some of the plaintiffs’ numbers are arbitrary.

• In particular, the NCAA takes issue with the claim that players should earn 10% of broadcast revenue because their names, images, and likenesses (NIL) are used, as that number arguably doesn’t resemble industry standards.

USGA ShotCast Powered by Cisco will be available at the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time this July. The tech provides real-time radar data and shot shapes through 3D hole imagery, which is an upgrade from the LPGA’s current setup — caddies record data but can’t track details of each swing. *golf clap*

📲 Six player unions, including the WNBPA, will collaborate on a social media campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month.

🏀 LSU champion Angel Reese is still driving new NIL deals — her most recent with Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge includes a new car.

🇷🇺 WTA No. 13 Veronika Kudermetova will remove the logo of Russian oil and gas company Tatneft to compete at Wimbledon in July.

⚽ More than 60K fans filled London’s Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s UEFA Women’s Champions League semi against Wolfsburg, breaking a 103-year-old English attendance record.

💰 Sports power couple Kealia and JJ Watt invested in English soccer club Burnley, including its TikTok-savvy women’s team.

🍻 The NWSL’s NC Courage inked a deal with local, women-owned microbrewery Bombshell Beer Company, who created a lager inspired by the team.

🎾 Martina Storti was named CEO of WTA Ventures, the brand-new commercial arm launched in tandem with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.