WNBA lifts broadcast network to new heights

When Brian Lawlor took over as president of Scripps Sports, parent company of Ion Network, in 2022 he looked to position the network squarely in the sports space, specifically in women’s sports. Lawlor was laughed at for this decision, but his bold move was actually prophetic.

“There are plenty of people who laughed at us at the beginning, both inside the company and outside the company saying, [sarcastically] ‘Wait, wait. Our strategy is women’s sports.’ Again, there hadn’t been a single WNBA game that had had a million viewers in a decade or more before that, so there was clearly skepticism, but we really believed that the quality of the play, there was nothing inferior about the WNBA,” Lawlor said in an interview with Awful Announcing.

Lawlor, despite the criticism, moved forward with purchasing the rights to WNBA Friday night doubleheaders in 2022 and NWSL Saturday night matches in 2023, positioning women’s sports on their network on back-to-back nights, something unheard of for most networks.

For ION, covering these two leagues fit within their business model and core demographic as the network is a female-skewed audience. However, to Ion’s surprise, covering the NWSL and WNBA has brought in new fans, as they have more men watching ION and a younger and more diverse audience thanks to their lineup of the WNBA and NWSL.

Lawlor and their team are happy about this pairing, “The WNBA is bringing a new audience to ION, and ION is bringing a new audience and fans to the WNBA. I think it’s been complimentary and beneficial to both.”

Again, ION’s positioning of back-to-back premiere women’s sports coverage is novel but paying dividends to say the least, “I think one of the stats that continues to blow me away is that from 2008 to the beginning of this season, there wasn’t a single [regular season] WNBA game that reached a million viewers, and now there’s been over 20 games this season that have reached a million viewers,” said Lawlor.

The highest viewership numbers this season have naturally all featured the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark given the generational interest in watching the former Iowa Hawkeyes star. And their games have even held up with strong viewership against the NFL. On September 6, when the Fever played the Minnesota Lynx, the game went head-to-head with the Brazil NFL game featuring the Packers and Eagles as well as the semifinals of tennis’ US Open who had two American stars matched together. It still drew 1.26 million viewers, one of the highest audiences of the season.

Heading into their last regular season match-up on Friday night between the Las Vegas Aces at the Indiana Fever, the network was averaging 663,000 viewers, which is a 131% increase from 2023. That game drew 1.2 million viewers, the seventh game for ION to reach 1 million this season. Those last two Friday night broadcasts are added to the ones below as the audiences to top the million mark this season.

Top WNBA audiences on ION through August 2024:

Indiana vs. Chicago (8/30)                       1,602,500 *

Indiana vs. Phoenix (7/12)                       1,338,410 **

Indiana vs. Phoenix (8/16)                       1,219,289 ***

Indiana vs. Atlanta (6/21)                         1,179,162

Indiana vs. Washington (6/7)                  1,023, 432

*Includes Minnesota vs. Dallas local broadcast

**Includes Las Vegas vs. Atlanta local broadcast

***Includes Seattle vs. Atlanta local broadcast

It would be remiss to not situate the Fever’s superstar, 2024 WNBA first-round pick, and favorite for Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark, as a factor. The “ Caitlin Clark effect ” from her days in college has certainly followed her into the league.

“So I think that the Fever and Caitlin are driving this loyalty that, just wherever they play, people want to watch, and I think they’re regularly fascinated by the skillset she has. We look forward to seeing what she can do in the future, and we have loved having her on ION eight times this season,” Lawlor said. “She’s an incredible star. She’s an incredible competitor. The fan interest in her is like nothing I’ve ever seen… She really is an amazing athlete, and the story is just fascinating. It started in Iowa, in the middle of the country, and then sort of built out to the coasts. It’s different than what you normally see, where the visibility of a player starts in a major city, typically on coasts, and then sort of spreads.”

Although the rookie class led by Clark is a huge draw for viewership and attendance alike, the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese, and Los Angeles Sparks’ Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson have brought new eyes to the WNBA. But Lawlor feels there is much more to the league than just the celebrated rookie class, “Look, the W already had incredible fans and incredible stars. When you look at the Aces and A’ja Wilson, you look at the Liberty, and Sabrina Ionescu, and Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, and Minnesota, there’s incredible athletes and players that many fans have been watching and blown away by for years.”

Again, Clark and the Fever are not the only factor in this year’s WNBA success. The Las Vegas Aces sold out their season tickets for this season and have already announced they have sold out their season tickets for 2025. The Golden State Valkyries, the new W team beginning play in 2025, have announced they have passed 17,000 season-ticket deposits. The Connecticut Sun game that was moved to Boston’s TD Garden was a sell-out with 19,156 tickets sold making it the sixth sell-out for the team this season. The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game drew 3.44 million viewers , crushing the record previously set over two decades ago in 2003. And there are many more examples from this historic season.

Lawlor, Scripps Sports, and ION are enjoying the benefits of pioneering this space but are not satisfied as they continue to push for expanded content and growth covering the NWSL and WNBA.

Recently, ION launched their new studio in Atlanta dedicated to providing the storytelling of women athletes in both leagues that they feel has been greatly missing. “I think the studio show for us, and having that extra time, and our commitment to journalism and storytelling has allowed us to tell some incredible stories of women who deserve to be showcased, and you can’t get that in just running the broadcast of the games,” Lawlor stated.

Particularly, Lawlor feels this storytelling and consistent coverage has set them apart from their network competition, “I do think that having the consistent franchise night has been really valuable to the leagues, and to solving that problem of, it’s hard to find professional women’s sports. Friday nights made sense for the W, it was a place that rights were available, and we thought we could do a lot with it. We really made available the consistent opportunity to see games every single week.”

As ION and Scripps Sports look to the future, the plan is to continue to be a part of the media rights and partnership with the WNBA as this season, according to Lawlor, “has far exceeded our expectations.”  For ION the partnership and studio shows have had a profound impact on their return on investment by allowing them to engage with new and different sponsorships, and advertisements, and create a brand engagement in a growing space.

As they look forward, Lawlor says ION and Scripps Sports have had no regrets. “We’re excited about the role we play, and we believe that we have played a significant role in the visibility of both of these leagues, which is allowing the exposure of the game and the fans, and therefore allowing people to come back week after week. I think the leagues would agree, we’ve played an important role.”

Scripps Sports and ION’s pact with the WNBA ends in 2025, but Lawlor is encouraged that they will renew saying, “I certainly hope and expect that we will renew our relationship for a bunch more years… When the league engaged in rights discussions for the NBA, they included much of their WNBA rights and distribution in that. But they did protect Friday nights for continued broadcast with ION.”

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