 Alicia Jessup, a professor of sport administration at Pepperdine, says the NBA, which owns more than half of the WNBA, brokered the agreement as part of its own media rights deal. And until the W negotiates independently... We don't know what the pure value of WNBA rights are. If the deal does become undervalued, it reportedly includes a promise for the partners to come back to the table early. I'm Savannah Marr for Marketplace.