Visibility vs. Discovery: What TV Does and Doesn’t Do for Women’s Sports

For the first time, every WNBA preseason game will be available to watch on national TV or streaming.

It’s a sign of progress and continuing momentum in women’s sports.

But we need to be honest about what this means — and what it doesn’t.

Putting women’s sports on TV helps with visibility. It serves existing fans by providing access to games they wanted to watch.

That’s awesome for the WNBA, where fandom runs deep and the appetite for more coverage is real.

But let’s not confuse visibility with discovery.

TV used to be the discovery engine. It’s not anymore.

There was a time when sports fandom was born in the quiet boredom of a weeknight — flipping through channels, stumbling across a game, and getting sucked in.

As a kid in Los Angeles, this is how I discovered and became a fan of the Lakers. During the NBA season, I could turn on the TV any given night and have a reasonable chance of seeing Kobe and Shaq.

In that world, just being on TV was half the battle. (It was how many of us in women’s sports first connected with the USWNT during the 1999 World Cup.)

But that world no longer exists.

Today, TV viewership is almost entirely intentional. Fans choose what to watch before they sit down — they’re rarely, if ever, stumbling upon something new.

If you’re watching a WNBA game, it’s because you’re already invested in the league, players, and storylines.

You’re not learning who Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese is by watching TV. You already follow them on Instagram, TikTok, or wherever you live online.

We all know this. Yet, in women’s sports, we too often treat being on TV as the be-all, end-all for growing the space.

Yes, getting games on TV is crucial for serving fans. But serving current fans doesn’t magically create new ones.

Because prospective fans aren’t flipping through channels.

They're scrolling through feeds.

Social media is where modern fandom is born

We say this all the time at Just Women’s Sports, because we see it every day: social media is the engine for creating new fans.

It's online where people first meet these athletes, where they follow along during the off-season, where they learn about their personalities, families, endorsements, and favorite TikTok dances.

It’s online that they’re seeing highlights, and tracking the news, and following the trending conversations. It’s online that they’re learning these games exist, and what’s at stake.

Once someone is invested in an athlete — as both a person and a player — the interest in watching them on TV naturally follows.

But when it come to tracking fandom, TV is a lagging indicator. Social is and will remain the tip of the spear.

What this means for media (and everyone else in the ecosystem)

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: when it comes to women’s sports, we’ve (mostly) solved the visibility problem.

It used to be that even if you were a fan, you couldn’t find these games anywhere. Now, anyone can find them in just a few clicks.

Visibility has been solved, while discoverability remains a continual work in progress.

The reason I founded Just Women’s Sports wasn’t just because the world needed another media company. It was because I wholeheartedly believed (and still do to this day) that digital media was THE unlock for women’s sports as a whole.

TV is where the connection gets confirmed. But social media is where it gets made.

So while it’s a win that the WNBA preseason is finally being televised and streamed, the biggest challenge we face as a space isn’t broadcast access. It’s day-to-day storytelling.

It’s helping new fans discover these sports, rather than just giving existing ones incrementally more access.

The momentum is real. The trajectory is up. But to keep growing — and reach new audiences — we need to focus on where discovery is happening.

It’s in the scroll, not the channel guide.

And that’s not a problem. It’s a massive opportunity.

PS: ICYMI, this week’s episode of Sports Are Fun! featured a candid conversation about college transfers and NIL, plus a surprise appearance from Gotham FC star Midge Purce ahead of her Broadway debut.