PWHL scales broadcast operations with world-feed model for Season 3

The shift to a world-feed model marks a maturity milestone for the PWHL, moving from a startup broadcast effort to a standardized professional sports production. By centralizing the technical feed, the league can offer more consistent quality to its diverse set of partners, which now includes Prime Video, TSN, and several U.S. regional sports networks. This efficiency is critical as the league scales to eight teams and a 120-game schedule while navigating more complex logistics, including the 16-game Takeover Tour. Watch for the league to leverage this standardized feed to negotiate more lucrative national media rights in the U.S. market as viewership data from the standardized broadcasts becomes available.

The PWHL’s broadcast expansion coincides with a period of massive audience growth. During the 2025-26 regular season, live YouTube viewership for the league increased by 77% year-over-year, with fans tuning in from 154 countries, per official league reports in April 2026. This digital momentum has been a cornerstone of the league's 'accessibility-first' strategy, which uses free streaming to drive interest in regional and national linear broadcasts. The league also reached a major ticketing milestone in Season 3, surpassing 1.1 million total fans in attendance across 120 games, a 71% increase from its inaugural season, according to Sports Business Journal in April 2026.

Technically, the league's distribution has become increasingly fragmented to maximize reach. In the United States, the PWHL added an expanded lineup of over-the-air partners including FOX, Paramount, Scripps Sports, Gray Media, and TEGNA, reaching roughly 56 million U.S. homes, per CBC reporting in November 2025. This patchwork of local deals is anchored by national partnerships in Canada with Prime Video, TSN, and RDS. These arrangements underscore the necessity of the new world-feed model, as the league must now deliver high-quality, uniform signals to dozens of independent broadcasters simultaneously.

Looking ahead, the league is already prepping for further scale. In May 2026, the PWHL announced it would expand to 12 teams for the 2026-27 season, adding franchises in Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas, and San Jose. As reported by The Hockey News in May 2026, the league has already established a refined five-phase expansion process to manage this growth. The successful implementation of the world-feed infrastructure in Season 3 is seen by industry analysts as a prerequisite for managing the upcoming move to a 12-team, coast-to-coast operation.