The WNBA and the Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) have signed a multiyear broadcast agreement aimed at turning the league’s regular-season games into appointment television.
Scripps will provide the W a standing Friday night slot on Ion, the fifth most-watched broadcast television network in the U.S. behind ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, according to Nielsen.
The WNBA, the first sports property to air on Ion, will serve as the cornerstone of Scripps’ sports division, which was launched in December 2022. Scripps local television stations have served as the home of the Big Sky Conference for football and basketball since 2022, but this marks the media conglomerate’s first national broadcast deal.
Financial details were not disclosed, but WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the terms “speak to the valuation of WNBA content.”
“This is a really good deal for us and a good deal for [Scripps]—I call it the dawn of a new day,” Engelbert said. “Having an expanded regular-season footprint, having additional games available nationally, is key. This has been an important part of our journey as we expanded to 40 games this year and have more inventory for broadcast partners. We’re thrilled to partner with Scripps to reach our fans in greater numbers on national and local platforms.”
The agreement does not extend beyond the end of the 2025 season, when the league’s main media rights package with ESPN expires and a fresh set of packages will be negotiated.
The WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on Ion will feature games on 15 Friday nights throughout the league’s first 40-game regular season—running from the second week of the season through Sept. 8. ESPN is already slotted to broadcast the start of the WNBA’s 27th season on May 19.
The WNBA will be responsible for game production, which is standard in many of the league’s arrangements. Engelbert says the WNBA also produces games on CBS and the Commissioner’s Cup, which has aired on Prime Video for the last two years.
Scripps’ Friday night schedule will be announced later as the league finalizes its arrangements with its other broadcast partners. Disney’s networks have already solidified their plans to broadcast 25 games nationally this season across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, including 16 featuring the WNBA’s two expected superteams (the New York Liberty and reigning champion Las Vegas Aces). ESPN will also pick up the postseason, which could add as many as 27 additional playoff games to Disney’s tab.
CBS, Paramount+ and CBS Sports will also return as league partners for the 2023 campaign, sharing the remaining WNBA inventory with NBA TV, WNBA League Pass (the W’s streaming platform), Meta Horizon Worlds and Twitter. In 2022, CBS picked up 40 games between its flagship network and CBS Sports. Its 2023 plans have not been announced.
Engelbert said Scripps’ slate of games likely would have landed on LeaguePass or local RSNs without the new deal.
Scripps plans to invest heavily in marketing the new partnership “on the channels that WNBA fans and women’s sports fans are on, as well as on the media channels where we know we can bring more fans to the game,” president and CEO Adam Symson said. That includes the use of its other networks and local TV stations to promote its WNBA inventory each season of the deal.
The end goal, Symson said, is to give the WNBA consistency and reach on linear television while delivering a product that enhances the fan experience.
“Women’s sports have typically taken a backseat on television to men’s sports from a programming and reach perspective,” Symson said. “But because Ion is a broadcast network, and not a cable network, and because we [can] geo-target, we’re able to make sure that if you’re in a WNBA home market and your team is playing, you will always see them on Friday night. Just like it takes Fox and CBS simultaneously to provide that same level of addressability for NFL on Sundays, we’re able to do that on Ion.”
