E.W. Scripps saw momentum last year from investments in women’s sports, including WNBA and NWSL, and Chief Revenue Officer Brian Norris suggested to StreamTV Insider that the broadcaster is going full-court press on the strategy amid the ongoing Upfront season.
The WNBA on Monday announced that four preseason games will be nationally broadcast on TV for the first time in the league’s history including on ESPN, NBA TV and Scripps’ ION.
Scripps is starting off the WNBA 2025 preseason action with a doubleheader airing on ION Friday, May 2. The matchup features the debut of Paige Bueckers, who was selected by the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 overall WNBA Draft 2025 pick. The Wings will face off against two-time WNBA champions the Las Vegas Aces. Later that night the Chicago Sky will play against the Brazil Women’s National Team. That game features WNBA All-Star Angel Reese.
Ahead of game action, ION’s WNBA coverage will start off with a studio show featuring host Larry Smith. And the preseason doubleheader is just the beginning, marking the return of the WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on ION sponsored by State Farm, which airs top games from the league every Friday night of the regular season starting May 16.
“ION is a proud home to the WNBA, and we couldn’t be happier to bring the entire country the league’s first two nationally televised preseason games in its history,” said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports – a dedicated division that launched in 2022, in a statement. “These two unique and star-studded preseason matchups will help fans and viewers get excited about the upcoming season.”
The latest plans for WNBA action on ION represent a continuation of the sports strategy, with an emphasis on women’s sports, that Scripps has been pursuing.
That includes investments last year to create two women’s sports franchise nights (featuring WNBA on Friday and the National Women’s Soccer League on Saturday) that offer not only live games but studio content and programming around the athletes and their stories.
Those efforts appeared to be working as Scripps last year touted positive Upfronts results and this year again is leading with women’s sports. In fact, Norris told StreamTV Insider Scripps is “doubling down” on the women’s sports strategy in 2025 as it looks to court ad buyer investment during negotiations amid the Upfront season. Scripps held its Upfront presentation and pitch to ad buyers on April 9 and Norris described highlighting the connections Scripps can drive with consumers at scale amid a fragmented entertainment ecosystem thanks to its mix of entertainment, news – and importantly, sports – across distribution channels that he categorized as “a huge advantage.”
Distribution-wise, Scripps has a mix of local stations and broadcast, pay TV and free streaming (FAST) channels that mean its programming is available “in virtually every household in the United States” while cable competitors “are only available in a little more than half of those homes,” according to Norris.
With its broad distribution and mix of programming, he said the company can confidently assure advertisers that Scripps is more insulated from pay TV cord cutting trends and that it can help connect them to engaged scaled audiences through live and premium content.
In terms of traction, Norris suggested interest in women’s sports only continues to grow – both with fans and advertisers.
“We made an early investment in women's sports, and the growing fandom, viewership and advertising demand has proven that women's sports truly represent a transformation and not a trend, and it's really paid off,” he told StreamTV Insider, while sharing some illustrative stats.
Per Scripps, average viewership for the Friday night WNBA franchise night on ION – which in also available as a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel across several major platforms – increased by 133% last season, attracting more than 23 million unique viewers across games and wrap shows. The NWSL has also benefited from Scripps’ attention and investment, with 50% of all league viewers of the NWSL watched on ION.
And advertisers appear keen to align with the fandom and connections fueled by the athletes and game-time competition.
According to Norris, despite a challenged advertising marketplace, the company saw “remarkable advertising demand” anchored by its sports programming – including its connected TV offering, which he said grew over 160% in the 2024 Upfront.
As mentioned, in addition to live games, Scripps offers studio content, having launched its own studio in Atlanta that’s dedicated to pre-, post- and halftime shows.
“By sharing player profiles and compelling narratives, we humanize these talented female athletes cultivating deeper connections with our audiences,” Norris commented. “Brands have seen this vision and understand the opportunity women sports represents, so we're making it easier for them to get in on the action through things like studio shows and other sports brand integrations, and the fans are rewarding us for this investment.”
Part of that involved a rebranding of the ION network from just procedurals and general entertainment into a live sports destination – where he noted the investment in studio shows help guide viewers along the transition.
Scooping up and hoping to keep women’s sports rights
With positive momentum and continued interest in women’s sports, part of Scripps’ plan to double down on the content strategy includes inking recent deals for additional live women’s sports while also aiming to maintain its grasp on current key rights.
Scripps Sports is in the final year of its three-season rights deal with the WNBA and is hopeful to renew it.
“We are very excited and encouraged about the possibility of renewing our agreement with the WNBA,” Norris told STV Insider. “The partnership thus far has been positive and we feel confident that we will continue that partnership.”
While the outcome of the WNBA’s next rights deal remains to be seen, Scripps in the meantime continues to expand coverage of other women’s sports 2025.
Earlier this year it inked multi-year deals with Sports Illustrated for the SI Women’s Games (an all-new, biennial all-star competition where elite athletes compete for Team Americas and Team World in basketball, flag football, gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, combat sports) and with Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off (a premiere early season college basketball tournament). The deals make ION the exclusive TV home of the Fort Myers Tip-Off for the next five years and the exclusive US broadcast home of the SI Women’s Games.
In securing those deals, Norris affirmed the WNBA and NWSL will continue be the foundation of Scripps’ women’s sports strategy but said Scripps recognized those leagues don’t run throughout the full year. Strategically, he said it was important for the company to include women’s sports content – and specifically the two latest deals – that air in the fourth quarter and pad out the broader sports programming calendar.
The CRO said this lines up well with how ION is positioned in the marketplace “and it aligns perfectly with our strong desire to continue to be the number one champion for women’s sports.”
Additionally, Norris said a big part of the commitment to women’s sports is also about democratizing access. To that end, part of its pitch to advertisers is the fact that Scripps provides premium live sports and entertainment programming outside of a paywall – unlike much of live sports content that consumers need to pay or subscribe to watch.
This year Scripps’ is also all about creating cohesion for advertisers across both the national sports rights it has and access to live sports it has in local markets, by offering all advertisers – including local advertisers and those transacting in Upfronts - ad spots on both the local and national level from one place.
“So while advertisers have this great appetite for sports content, it works out perfectly that we're able to offer these brands access to this content by making one phone call,” Norris said, adding that having full-year sports lineup also helps on this front.