ESPN Extends Coverage of AUSL, Strengthening Its Commitment to Softball
ESPN announced that it will be extending its coverage of Athletes Unlimited volleyball, basketball, and the recently added softball league (AUSL) in a multi-year deal.
Specifically, AUSL’s 2026 championship series will now be featured on ABC. This is the first time professional softball has ever been featured on this platform and thrust into the premier national spotlight.
In this multi-year deal spanning three years, ESPN will televise 50 AUSL games (47 regular season games) nationally in the 2026 season.
In discussing the partnership, Rosalyn Durant, ESPN’s Executive Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions, stated, “The growth we’ve seen across Athletes Unlimited’s leagues speaks to the power and appeal of women’s sports. We’re excited to deepen our partnership and bring even more of these moments and athletes to fans everywhere.”
As a premier partner in the growth and momentum of softball, ESPN has seen its past investments pay off. First, in their inaugural season, AUSL’s viewership on ESPN and its accompanying platforms rose 88 percent from the previous year and iteration of the league. Furthermore, the championship series between the Talons and Bandits averaged 230,000 viewers on ESPN.
BREAKING NEWS: ESPN and Athletes Unlimited have announced a multi-year partnership that strengthens @espn's role as an official broadcast partner for AU’s professional leagues in softball, basketball, and volleyball.
— Athletes Unlimited (@AUProSports) October 29, 2025
Learn more: https://t.co/yqRY9z80oD pic.twitter.com/VA56zr1fvL
Additionally, ESPN has long invested in the Women’s College World Series (WCWS), covering every pitch of the tournament since 2001. However, this year marked unprecedented ratings as 2.2 million people tuned into the championship series between Texas and Texas Tech, making it the most-watched Finals of all time.
Similarly, this year’s Little League Softball World Series broke records as the championship that aired on ABC captivated 1.4 million viewers, up 139% from 2024.
For Jon Patricof, co-founder and CEO of Athletes Unlimited, this marked the perfect time to continue and strengthen the partnership between ESPN and AU.
“Since the launch of AUSL back in June and MLB’s investment in June of 2025, this has been an absolute rocket ship over the last six months," Patricof told Softball On SI. "We have seen the demand from fans and partners, putting in place a significant and groundbreaking relationship on the broadcast side is a foundational element of the business plan we are trying to build.”
"There are several new elements of this relationship that build on the incredible work we have all done together between ESPN and AUSL, over many years," Patricof added. "The first part is elevating games of the AUSL to ABC and ESPN’s flagship networks and broadly increasing the distribution of games to reach more fans. Second, is ESPN’s desire and interest in producing the championship. For the first time, they will be committing production resources to the relationship, which we think is a really terrific sign of their desire to become an even more active partner. Third, it is really the marketing, promotion, advertising, sales joint efforts that are going to be going into the AUSL from both parties, and this relationship really marks an entirely new phase of our work together.”
According to Patricof, all signs point in a positive direction as the renewal and expansion of the media rights deal between ESPN and AUSL.
“Truly the best indication for me, and check on how we are doing, is signing a partner like ESPN, a partner that already knows the business and the property. ESPN is expressing a desire to significantly increase their commitment and involvement. It just shows that clearly things are working well.”
In addition to softball, Athletes Unlimited will partner with ESPN to cover all AU volleyball and basketball games, with the AU Basketball season starting play in February 2026 in Nashville, Tenn.
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Allison Smith is an expert in leadership and organizational behavior in collegiate and professional women’s sports. Smith is a professor (Georgia State University), researcher, and writer. Smith holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Kinesiology and Sport Studies. Smith’s research centers on combatting the underrepresentation of women leaders in sport, lack of organizational structure for work life integration for sport employees, and lack of programming and oversight for preparing athletes to transition to life after sport. Since graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism in 2011, Smith has sought opportunities to write about sports as a contributing writer focused on the growth of women’s collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports in this new age and movement for multiple outlets including Athletic Director U, and now Forbes.com. As a former Division I and II pitcher and Division III pitching coach Smith will bring unique insight and expertise to Softball on SI.
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