ESPN has secured the continuity of its top women’s basketball broadcast team.
Rebecca Lobo signed a multiyear contract extension with the network, Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp reported on Thursday, marking her second such deal in three years after previously re-upping with the Worldwide Leader in November 2022.
The extension keeps the trio of Lobo, play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco, and sideline reporter Holly Rowe intact for the foreseeable future. The aforementioned broadcast booth has worked together for 13 WNBA seasons and six college basketball seasons, and according to SBJ, that continuity played a major role in Lobo’s decision to stay.
“It is sort of unique that we get to work together year-round with both college and WNBA, but continuing to work with Holly and Ryan was a big driver for me in terms of wanting to stay put at ESPN,” Lobo told Karp.
Ruocco joined Lobo on the WNBA broadcasts in 2013 after initially needing to be convinced the assignment would be worthwhile. He later became ESPN’s lead women’s college basketball play-by-play voice in November 2020 after Adam Amin departed for Fox Sports, reuniting the trio year-round.
The relationship between the three extends well beyond their on-air work. In July, ahead of the WNBA All-Star Game, Ruocco praised both partners on ESPN’s 06010 Communications Podcast, calling Lobo “as good as any analyst in any sport in the country” and Rowe “the greatest storyteller in the history of sports television.”
“We’re all such good friends and we have such a level of connection and trust and friendship off the court away from the booth that I think it helps lend itself to really dynamic chemistry on the mic,” Ruocco told SBJ.
Lobo’s extension comes during an unprecedented period of growth for women’s basketball. She told SBJ she’s been “thrilled with the way the sport has grown, especially over the course of the last couple of years.”
Starting in 2026, Amazon Prime Video and NBC will join ESPN as WNBA broadcast partners under an 11-year, roughly $2.2 billion media rights deal. The WNBA Finals will rotate among the three networks, with NBC getting the first crack in 2026. NBC has identified Zora Stephenson as the leading candidate for its top WNBA play-by-play role, while Kate Scott was recently named Versant’s lead announcer for games on USA Network.
By locking down Lobo now, ESPN ensures continuity for its broadcasts just as competition for the sport enters a new era. The network will air five WNBA Finals between 2026 and 2036 as part of the new deal, along with maintaining its exclusive rights to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament through 2032.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.