The league began play in 2013 with eight teams, four of which were former members of Women's Professional Soccer (Chicago Red Stars, Boston Breakers, Sky Blue FC, Western New York Flash).
The commentators that FS2 employed during this time included Steve Cangialosi (play-by-play) and Kyndra de St. Aubin[16] (color commentary).
The Boston Breakers and Western New York Flash would each appear once on ESPN2, with the Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City and Washington Spirit being shut out from regular-season matches.
The agreement called for FS1 to air three regular-season matches (beginning on September 7, 2016, with a match-up between the Chicago Red Stars and FC Kansas City[38]) and all three games of the NWSL Playoffs, which includes the semifinals and final.
The remaining games were initially streamed exclusively by go90 in the United States under a digital rights deal with Verizon Communications, and through the NWSL website internationally.
[53][54] The Equalizer noted that the app was prone to crashing, did not have the same wide device support as YouTube,[55] and that the telecasts themselves suffered from their own technical problems (such as poor camera angles and glitches with graphics), but that the streams were good when they worked.
League operations director Amanda Duffy subsequently announced that the NWSL Game of the Week matches, many of which were slated for the hottest parts of the day in humid cities such as Houston, Orlando, and Cary, North Carolina, would be rescheduled to allow for longer hydration breaks.
Some Game of the Week matches changed to other venues, and teams not scheduled for television were granted more flexibility in rescheduling kickoffs for player safety.
[58][59] On June 6, 2018, it was announced that six Game of the Week matches through the remainder of the season would move to evening kickoffs and air on ESPNews (which is owned by a sister venture to A&E Networks), in an effort to ensure the safety of players, as well as improve attendance.
[60] Go90 shut down in July 2018; the remaining games not aired on television were moved back to the NWSL website for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.
[61] Since ESPNNews was generally included in a higher-tier cable package as compared to Lifetime, this made the channel less accessible to the average viewer.
Fans not watching on television would be able to stream the games live via the ESPN App, but they would need to be ESPNews subscribers to do that as authentication is required in the U.S.
[64] NWSL president Amanda Duffy said the changes would give the league and its teams finer control over its media and sponsorship agreements, and expected to announce a new television rights deal soon.
[67] In July 2019, the NWSL announced that ESPN had acquired a 14-match[68] package for the remainder of the season divided among ESPNews and ESPN2, including the semifinals and championship match.
Twitch will also become the NWSL's international media rights holder and stream all matches outside Canada and the United States for free.
That was supposed to be followed by a rematch of previous year's championship game between the Chicago Red Stars and the North Carolina Courage at 7 p.m.
Jenn Hildreth once again provided the play-by-play alongside Aly Wagner with Marisa Pilla and Lori Lindsey reporting from the sidelines.
Play-by-play announcers included JP Dellacamera, Josh Eastern, Jenn Hildreth, Joe Malfa, Maura Sheridan, Jamie Watson, and Mike Watts, with Jordan Angeli and Gary Bailey on color commentary.