The E.W. Scripps Company marked a successful Upfront season, where a strategy of leading with women’s sports helped the broadcaster win over more and new types of advertisers.
Scripps is a local broadcaster with more than 60 local TV stations in more than 40 markets as well as national news and entertainment networks, including ION, Bounce, Grit, Court TV, and others, and counts a streaming presence through free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) Channels including ION, BoucneXL and others.
This year the broadcaster entered the Upfront ad sales season armed for the first time with two dedicated franchise nights and studio shows for women’s sports including the WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), for which it’s been investing in both marketing and studio content to support the leagues and fans.
It comes as women’s sports have been capturing increased attention, particularly the WNBA as fans get fired up over the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who also created buzz for the league coming off the heels of the much-viewed Olympics games where they both competed for and represented team USA.
Excitement generated from the Olympic Games translated to more viewership as the WNBA season resumed, according to Scripps Chief Revenue Officer Brian Norris, who sat down virtually for an interview with StreamTV Insider.
Illustrating the increased fandom, Scripp’s coverage of the Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky matchup Friday, August 30, was the most-watched WNBA game ever on ION, averaging 1.6 million viewers and peaking at 1.92 million. It marks the fifth time this season that ION delivered over 1 million viewers for a WNBA game. It’s ION’s second season broadcasting WNBA games, and on average the WNBA audience in 2024 on the network is more than double the 2023 average. ION is airing eight matchups for the Indiana Fever, among other games, during the 14-week season. It's also airing 50 nationally broadcast NWSL games, including doubleheaders every weekend.
The growing popularity of women’s sports helped lead to significant demand from advertisers during the Upfront, according to Norris. For a look back at a conversation with the revenue chief about Scripp’s strategy going into the Upfront season read here.
Going into the Upfronts, Scripps hypothesized that by investing in women’s sports and giving two dedicated franchise nights that help audiences know where to find them – both viewers and advertisers would indeed follow. And results are a testament that the approach hit the mark, according to Norris.
“We knew that there would be demand against that property, what we didn’t anticipate was the amount,” he told StreamTV Insider. “There was an incredible amount of demand for women’s sports.”
According to the CRO, demand Scripps saw went beyond in-stream ads, where it worked to meet Upfront advertisers with creativity and flexibility through sponsorships and integrations that enable brands to become more closely aligned with storytelling around sports and athletes. For example, that could involve integrating an advertiser into the NWSL with virtual signage or sponsored clock wraps, or sponsoring storytelling through Scripps’ studio show content.
“I believe that our advertisers and agency partners have appreciated the fact that we’ve approached the marketplace not just with a pure number standpoint, but from a creativity standpoint and being as flexible as possible with our advertising partners and also being easy to work with,” Norris said.
As disclosed during Scripps Q2 earnings, he noted Upfront commitment volumes grew in the low single-digits compared to last year’s – although declined to put specific figures to that growth, so what it actually amounts to isn’t entirely clear. That said, according to Norris, based on marketplace intelligence, all indications are that it represents “a very big improvement versus our competition” that are similarly positioned in the market.
In outperforming competitors, Norris attributed success to Scripps’ differentiated programming as well as the sports-centric strategy and advertisers’ interest in partnering with the company on CTV.
In terms of pricing, he said Scripps closed sports deals with mid-single-digits increases versus last year, and also saw pricing growth for its multicultural-targeted network Bounce and BounceXL as advertisers began to recognize the buying power of that audience. Upfront pricing for its general entertainment properties was in-line with the marketplace.
Positive Upfront results are good news for Scripps, which in Q2 saw revenue for its networks segment decline 9.7% year over year to $209 million, while local media revenue grew 3.6% yoy in the period to $365 million.
CTV growth
CTV was also a bright spot for Scripps during the Upfront, where Norris cited more than 70% growth versus last year’s results.
Within the CTV figure, over 30% represents new business, while 13% reflects sports-only CTV business. Scripps has been on broadcaster particularly leaning into FAST channels including through local news and nine other distinct FAST channels as of February 2024.
On the CTV front, Scripps saw advertisers lean into the channel as both its own vehicle and a way to extend traditional linear TV buys.
Some advertisers, Norris noted, see CTV as a natural extension of what they’re doing in linear and a way to find an elusive audience, while others have a CTV-first strategy and are looking to find audiences that aren’t found in the linear space. Upfront advertisers also appeared keen on Scripps’ ability to offer live sports in a free ad-supported viewing environment, including through FAST, and where its channels are also available over-the-air.
And while talk of alternate currencies and new forms of measurement often circulate Upfront discussions, Scripps took a measurement-agnostic approach to transacting deals, preferring to let agencies and brands lead the way. In that regard, Norris said a number of advertisers had interest in Nielsen’s big data product but at the end of the day, “the vast majority” of its Scripps Upfront deals were done on traditional Nielsen demos of age and gender.
New advertisers, leagues like studio content
Overall, Scripps saw an uptick in interest from new advertisers during the Upfronts, adding more than two dozen to its roster.
For advertisers, Norris emphasized that many were happy to have the opportunity for brands to closer integrate with the storytelling around sports. Scripps already has marquee sponsors like State Farm ad Capital One, but there are still plenty of ways to get in on sports and he cited “significant’ demand against sponsorship opportunities and activities.
That includes expanding to small and medium sized business (SMBs) advertisers, where Scripps this year aimed to “democratize” its ad inventory for different types of advertisers and created a dedicated team focused on SMB, as well as direct-to-consumer brands.
Looking at Scripps Upfront results as a whole, where sports was a driver, Norris said advertiser categories the broadcaster was able to unlock and grow included automotive, alcohol, insurance, travel and telco. Of its new Upfront advertisers, 25% are considered direct-to-consumer and/or SMB advertisers.
As part of its pursuit of a sports strategy, Scripps in 2022 launched a dedicated sports division. As mentioned, it’s also putting investment and resources into promoting women’s sports – which historically haven’t gotten as much as attention or dollars as their men counterparts – with its own Atlanta-based broadcast studio where it produces pre- and post-game show content that debuted last month alongside WNBA games.
And it’s not just advertisers that like the dedicated airtime and game-related content.
“The leagues that we partner with love it,” Norris said. “From a distribution standpoint, there’s really no greater distribution vehicle than ION, in conjunction with our FAST distribution and…the leagues enjoy that.”
The studio content that shares athlete’s journeys with fans also helps benefit league growth and adoption of competitive WNBA and NWSL products.
“In my opinion, it’s crucial for these leagues to grow, to tell the stories of not just the teams, but the players on those teams,” Norris said. “So the studio shows end up being a vehicle for us to really lean into fandom that people have for these leagues.”