Whoopi Goldberg’s All Women’s Sports Network aims to raise awareness

Hollywood icon Whoopi Goldberg hopes the newly launched All Women’s Sports Network will bring more attention to women’s sports.

Goldberg started the network with George Chung, co-founder of international media holding company Jungo TV. It is the first global media channel dedicated exclusively to highlighting women’s sports and is available in the US on Vizio WatchFree+ free streaming service.

Goldberg told CNBC that her childhood love of the sport and her desire to see more female representation in the field inspired her to start the network.

“I want little girls to have what we call baseball cards for their new favorite players, and I want them to follow me like I followed Mickey Mantle,” Goldberg said.

AWSN is also available through international partners in India, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.

The network will provide 2,000 hours of sports this year and in 2025. It will offer a wide range of sports including football, basketball, volleyball and field hockey, cricket, judo and table tennis.

Goldberg said she hopes the growth of women’s basketball and soccer will help put the spotlight on other women’s sports.

“We started seeing great basketball, and I think more people said, ‘Hey, I want to see more of that.'” Women are playing other sports that we don’t know about. “I want it there because women are doing it.”

Chung said Vizio currently reaches 20 million TVs, and within the next three to four months, AWSN expects to be available on 100 million devices in the US.

Goldberg admitted to initial resistance to starting the network, but once he met Chung, their goals aligned.

“I like a good business proposition, and I want this to go through my life. I want it to be as popular as ABC, NBC or CBS,” he said.

Disclosure: NBC and CNBC are divisions of NBCUniversal.