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The WNBA and Ion Television, the Scripps-owned broadcast network, have renewed their media rights agreement.
The initial three-year deal, which Ion reportedly paid $13 million for annually, began in 2023 and was the league’s second traditional TV deal independent of the NBA’s longstanding agreement with ESPN/ABC. The W also has a deal with CBS, which includes games on broadcast CBS and its cable sibling CBS Sports Network. Both the Ion and CBS Sports deals are set to expire at the end of the 2025 season.
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Financial details as well as the length of the Ion extension were not disclosed.
In April, ahead of Scripps’ upfront event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor expressed confidence that the WNBA would remain on Ion beyond this season. He referenced how the league’s games on the network were not included in the new NBA media agreement forged last summer.
“The one thing you didn’t see bundled in was Friday night,” Lawlor said in the interview. “They really value what Ion brings with that national distribution, the new audience, the incredible visibility, so they protected Friday nights. I fully expect that—not just this season, but for many years down the road—we’ll be long-term partners with them.”
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The hysteria around Caitlin Clark last season helped Ion more than double its viewership versus 2023 as the network averaged 670,000 viewers per game, a 133% growth versus the prior season. Clark and the Indiana Fever were responsible for Ion’s seven games with 1 million viewers or more. More important, more than 20 new advertisers bought commercial time on Ion last season thanks to its WNBA broadcasts.
Growth continues for the network through the first four weeks of this season. Ion’s total viewership is up 4% compared to the same timeframe last season, which included four Fever games. Viewership with one key demographic, women aged 18-49, is up 27% through the first four weeks of the season.
Ion has the most games among the WNBA’s legacy media partners this season with 50 as part of its WNBA Friday Night Spotlight, which includes the first weekly studio show exclusively dedicated to WNBA coverage. The success of the Friday “franchise” inspired Ion to create a similar template for NWSL games on Saturdays.
Certainly, the Ion renewal will get the attention of the players as they look to improve their labor standing with the league. After last year’s WNBA Finals, the WNBPA exercised its opt-out clause in the CBA, which expires on Oct. 31. The players are pushing to revamp the current revenue-sharing system to be more favorable for them, one that gives them a bigger share of money coming in from the new NBA media deal and the independent Ion pact.
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