Hollywood icon Whoopi Goldberg hopes her recently launched All Women's Sports Network will bring more attention to women's sports.
Goldberg started the network with George Chung, co-founder of the international media holding company Jungo TV. It is the first global media outlet focused solely on highlighting women's sports and is available in the US on the free streaming service Vizio WatchFree+.
Goldberg told CNBC that her childhood passion for sports and her desire for greater representation of women in the field inspired her to start the network.
“I want little girls to have what we used to call baseball cards for their new favorite players, and I want them to follow, just like I followed Mickey Mantle,” Goldberg said.
AWSN is also available through international partners in India, UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.
The network will air 2,000 hours of live sports for the rest of this year and through 2025. It will cover a wide range of sports from football, basketball, volleyball and hockey to cricket, judo and table tennis.
Actor and comedian Whoopi Goldberg arrives on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.
Todd Owyoung | Nbcuniversal | Getty Images
Goldberg said she hopes the growth of women's basketball and soccer will help bring other women's sports into the spotlight.
“We started seeing some great basketball being played, and I think more people were saying, 'Hey, I want to see more of that.' What other sports do women play that we don't know about? Like hockey or roller derby. I want America to have a roller derby team.
Chung said All Women's Sports Network is available in nearly 20 million homes in the U.S. through Vizio WatchFree+. In the coming months, AWSN will be available in more than 100 million homes, the company said.
Goldberg acknowledged that she initially encountered some resistance in launching the network, but once she met Chung, their goals aligned.
“I love a good business proposition, and I want this to go far beyond my lifetime. I want it to be as well known as an ABC, NBC or CBS,” she said.
Disclosure: NBC and CNBC are divisions of NBCUniversal.
Clarification: AWSN will be available in more than 100 million homes in the coming months. An earlier version of this story misstated the projection.
