Fever-Sky beats college football head-to-head

The biggest storyline in the WNBA this season has without a doubt been the Rookie of the Year race between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. And ION is the latest network to benefit from the budding rivalry between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever.

WNBA ratings this season have seen a dramatic increase, which is undoubtedly tied to the star power that Clark and Reese have brought to the league in their rookie season.

Of the 21 WNBA games to bring in at least one million viewers this season, 18 have included Caitlin Clark and the Fever. This includes Friday’s matchup between the Fever and the Sky, which helped ION reach new marks in their WNBA coverage.

According to Jason Clinkscales of Sportico, ION’s broadcast of the game brought in an average of 1.6 million viewers , peaking at 1.92 million viewers. It ranks as the highest-viewed game in the history of the network, with the previous high coming in a game between the Fever and the Mercury in July.

ION, which has been broadcasting WNBA games for each of the last two years, is seemingly diving head first into their coverage of the sport, debuting a new studio show called Friday Night Spotlight last month .

These kinds of viewership numbers certainly reaffirm that all of the energy that they are putting into their coverage of the sport is worth it. Friday’s game even beat out every college football game that aired on Friday night in ratings, including ESPN’s broadcast of Oklahoma versus Temple.

Thus far this season, WNBA games on ION are now averaging 639,000 viewers so far this season, which is a 123-percent increase from last year’s full-season average of 287,000. And if things continue the way that they are going in the WNBA, this should only stand to grow in Ion’s final year of their three-year broadcast rights deal with the league.

[ Sportico , Sports Media Watch ]

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