E.W. Scripps is launching the Scripps Sports Network, a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel dedicated to sports that will include live matchups and game replays, exclusive original series, acquired content and other sports-focused programming.
Premiering Tuesday, March 24, the 24/7 free streaming channel debut comes ahead of the company’s annual pitch to advertisers as it seeks to attract budgets during the Upfront season.
At launch Scripps Sports Network will be widely available across major free streaming platforms including The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Fire TV and Alexa, Google TV Freeplay, Xumo Play, TCL tv+, TCL Channel, Plex, Local Now, Sports.TV and Tablo.
It represents Scripps’ latest move in a strategy centered around sports, including emerging and women’s in particular, on streaming. The local broadcaster previously invested in women’s sports, including the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and WNBA, and dedicated franchise nights with live games available for free on streaming via the ION channel.
Scripps started a focus and greater investment in sports, including women’s, in earnest roughly three years ago. It’s a decision Scripps Chief Revenue Officer Brian Norris told StreamTV Insider that the company made not “because it was trendy” but because it saw something the market had not fully valued yet – namely: “a genuine connection with audiences who had been underserved.”
It has seen advertiser investment and engagement for women’s sports, with streaming viewership for the NWSL and WNBA on ION combined up 25% in 2025. And has continued the women’s sports push with additional investments in emerging sports, most recently as the first to offer the Professional Women’s Hokey League (PWHL) on national TV including free streaming.
“With the PHWL, we are helping make sure that the energy around women's hockey during the Olympics does not fade but instead continues to build the attention and momentum the sport deserves,” Norris told StreamTV Insider.
Making free streaming a premium content proposition
As Scripps brings a new sports-focused FAST channel to market, Norris said the company identified and aims to fill a gap in the market, both for emerging women’s sports and for more premium programming in the free streaming space at large.
The world of free streaming has quickly expanded in recent years but represents a fragmented ecosystem across a multitude of platforms and services that each often have large channel counts offering various types of programming.
And while viewership of FAST and free streaming has grown, it isn’t always equated with quality in the eyes of consumers or advertisers.
“I think those platforms have gotten a really bad rap for being less than premium,” the CRO said regarding the FAST space, noting some existing channels feature older reruns of library or recycled content.
Whereas Scripps, with its roster of emerging sports partners and live content, sees a position to utilize that acquisition model and help evolve the free streaming space from a sports programming perspective.
Norris shared a message that Scripps aims to drive home with advertisers and consumers, which also represents a key shift the company hopes to help shape in 2026 via the new sports-focused FAST channel: “Free is not the discount tier anymore, at least as far as Scripps is concerned, free is premium.”
It plans to prove that out with SSN, where it has a year-round calendar of live sports with more than 100 events teed up for the 24/7 FAST channel at launch, alongside original storytelling and shoulder content.
Scripps Sports Network offers home for emerging sports
Notably, SSN won’t host live WNBA games but said the professional women’s basketball league will play a prominent role on the channel with more than 100 hours of WNBA replay telecasts of games that originally air on ION.
Programming from other Scripps Sports partnerships will also be part of the FAST lineup, including the NHL Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights and the NCAA’s Big Sky Conference.
The NWSL will also see expanded distribution, with Scripps Sports Network airing 59 live games from the league in addition to coverage on ION.
And SSN will also be the free streaming home to smaller or emerging leagues that are part of the Scripps Sports portfolio and those that may have underserved fans or room to grow viewership.
Some of those include regular season games from the PWHL, a package of 12 regular season contents from women’s professional Major League Volleyball (MLV), the Pro Cheer League, and the women’s Athlos NYC track and field event.
It will also showcase more niche sports like U.S. indoor football league the National Arena League and the American 7s Football League. Additional live events include the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off and the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Capitalizing on differentiation of live
Scripps is pursuing a free streaming and emerging sports acquisition model, like some of those named above, where the new FAST channel presents both an opportunity for fans to engage and for advertisers to align around brand-safe and premium programming.
Per Norris, Scripps realized early on from distribution partners “that live sports was a key differentiation that we could capitalize on.”
In terms of where Scripps chose to focus attention and investment, Norris noted it has been able to be nimble and pivot to where audiences are showing up, while primarily looking at sports, leagues and fans that were currently underserved in the market.
Based on feedback from the industry, he said distribution partners were eager to carry the new Scripps Sports Network while advertisers “wanted in” if it meant live sports within a free streaming environment.
“This all hinges on our ability to bring live competition to the platform,” he commented.
Storytelling and athlete focus with original series, podcasts
The Scripps Sports Network FAST channel won’t be all live sports all the time though.
It will also serve original exclusive content, including 10 new series in development, starting with two athlete-focused conversation series.
Acquired content is also part of the picture, including series Cold as Balls featuring Kevin Hart interviewing athletes and sports personalities from an ice-cold bathtub. Scripps Sports network will also host a curated suite of sports podcasts, with detail to be disclosed later.
According to Norris, curating top sports podcasts will be “a big part of the channel” and the company has committed to airing video portions of multiple popular sport podcasts.
As it works to find the sweet spot of balancing live sports with other types of programming like podcasts, he said the FAST channel plans to tell stories that are more evergreen and tap into affinity for athletes with content that goes beyond the broadcast to “actually bring those athletes into the homes of the audience.”
“The one thing that is for sure is that the content is going to feed the needs for sports lovers to learn more about their favorite athletes, their favorite retired athletes, their favorite current athletes, and really be able to dig into the lives of those athletes,” Norris commented.
Emerging sports present opportunity for emerging brands
With smaller and emerging live sports a key part of the new channel, it also presents opportunities for new types of advertisers to secure sponsorship positions that they likely wouldn’t be able to get in on otherwise or are already long-locked-up in the larger major live sports realm.
Per Norris, from an emerging sports perspective advertisers have expressed excitement around this factor, in that they don’t have to contend with incumbent sponsors.
“[Advertisers] see this very much as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor and own significant chunks of the broadcast, in particular live sports…and be able to be that founding, inaugural sponsor that also allows us to tell better stories through the program.”
The Scripps Sports Network already has a foundational sponsor signed on with State Farm - a brand that previously showed up as an early sponsor with Scripps for WNBA and NSWL franchise nights on ION.
“We’ve witnessed firsthand the incredible energy and passion fueling women’s sports,” said Baldwin Cunningham, head of media and partnerships at State Farm, in a statement. “That’s why State Farm is proud to continue championing women’s sports across the U.S. through sponsorship of the new Scripps Sports Network streaming channel.”
But while major or large so-called blue chip advertisers typically own legacy sports sponsorship positions, Scripps sees a chance for smaller or direct-to-consumer brands to get in on the action via the emerging sports on SSN.
SSN “creates as specific opportunity and value for emerging brands, for small and medium sized business, for direct-to-consumer brands,” Norris said.
On that front, heading into launch, Scripps is open for business to transact with any brand large or small, “to give them the voice that they need in the sports landscape.”
For more on broader CTV industry efforts to court ad investment from a potentially lucrative but largely untapped SMB market of advertisers, read our earlier deep dive special report here.
Broad distribution of sports content, plans for new ad formats formats
The FAST channel launch comes as Scripps is looking to capture advertiser investment and the company believes it has a unique attraction with its mix of premium live sports and related content paired with broad reach across a footprint that includes free streaming platforms, virtual MVPDs, local markets and local market over-the-air distribution.
This could be favorable for advertisers still seeking reach from CTV, particularly at a time when traditional pay TV continues to shrink and many consumers pay closer attention to their wallets and may gravitate towards free or lower-cost quality entertainment options.
“We reach virtually every television household in America through ubiquitous, ubiquitous distribution, combining national scale with deep connections to local communities,” Norris said of Scripps’ footprint and programming availability.
While not discounting the value of reach and frequency for advertisers from their CTV investments, the CRO noted Scrips Sports Network provides a way to experiment, test and learn with new ad formats that help engage viewers and move them further down the purchase funnel – as lower-funnel KPIs become more important to brands, particularly DTC and SMBs.
“With our Scripps Sports Network we’re going to give audiences the opportunity to engage with us via QR codes, via shoppable elements, to actually collapse that purchase funnel in real-time,” Norris said. (For more on the rise of interactive CTV ad formats see our deep dive Special Report here.)
And as viewer consumption and purchase habits continue to quickly shift, having that combination of live sports and original content within a free ad-supported streaming environment is at the crux of the launch of the Scripps Sports Network and the company’s pitch to advertisers.
“Our commitment is simple: give brands the ability to integrate into both sports and original programming, outside of a paywall, and connect them with passionate, engaged fans wherever they’re streaming,” Norris said in a statement.