Scripps has made its first major entry into sports media rights with a WNBA rights deal.
Scripps and the WNBA announced Thursday a multi-year media rights deal that will give ION — the Scripps-owned ‘netlet’ formerly known as PAX — rights to 44 Friday night WNBA regular season games starting May 26, the second week of the season. ION will carry two windows per night, some national and some regional.
The news comes months after Scripps Sports formally launched with the goal of acquiring sports rights. Outside of the WNBA, ION only has rights to the National Spelling Bee. In 2000, while still known as PAX, it simulcast coverage of the Major League Baseball ALCS on NBC in markets that chose to air a competing presidential debate.
Scripps and Nexstar — owner of fellow ‘netlet’ The CW — have been actively seeking rights for their previously-overlooked over-the-air channels. The CW acquired rights to the LIV Golf tour earlier this year and was briefly mentioned as a potential contender for a Pac-12 media deal.
ION joins ESPN, ABC, CBS, CBS Sports Network and NBA TV in carrying WNBA games on linear television. The league also has streaming deals with Facebook, Twitter and Amazon Prime. Between and ION (44) ESPN/ABC (25), the WNBA will have nearly 70 games on linear TV this season — with the CBS and NBA TV schedules still to be released.
As recently as five years ago, the WNBA linear TV schedule consisted of just 62 games total across ESPN/ABC (13) and NBA TV (49).
The Friday night games will be the first in WNBA history to air on primetime over-the-air television. ESPN previously announced that ABC will carry this year’s WNBA All-Star Game in primetime.
(News from WNBA)
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