Caitlin Clark’s first in-season game as a WNBA player will be available to stream on Disney+.
The May 14 matchup between Clark’s Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun will be available to watch across Disney+, ESPN2 and ESPN+. The game will also kick off a doubleheader before the Phoenix Mercury face off against the Las Vegas Aces.
The WNBA games mark the first live sports events to stream on Disney+, beginning the integration of ESPN on Disney+ after Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger announced Tuesday that an ESPN tile would be available on Disney+ by the end of 2024.
“In March, we successfully launched Hulu on Disney+, bringing extensive general entertainment content to the platform for bundle subscribers [and] we’re encouraged by the early results,” Iger said during Tuesday’s Q2 earnings call. “By the end of this calendar year, we will be adding an ESPN tile to Disney+, giving all U.S. subscribers access to select live games and studio programming within the Disney+ app.”
Iger also noted the tile is the “first step to bring ESPN to Disney+ viewers” ahead of the launch of a standalone ESPN streaming service, which is currently slated to launch in the fall of 2025.
As Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes to the women’s NCAA championship game, her all-star presence was undeniably responsible for a ratings boom during March Madness. After the matchup between Iowa and Holy Cross marked the most-watched first round game on record, the final four Iowa-UConn game — which was the most-watched women’s college basketball game with 14.2 million viewers — scored ESPN’s biggest audience for any basketball game.
Viewership for the championship game between Iowa and South Carolina averaged 18.7 million, outpacing the 14.8 million viewers brought in by the men’s NCAA championship game the next day and marking the first time that the audience for a women’s college basketball championship audience surpassed that of the men’s championship.
