NEW YORK — The WNBA and Scripps have signed a multiyear deal to televise Friday night regular-season games on ION.
The plan, announced Thursday, is to show 44 games over 15 weeks — starting on May 26 and running to Sept. 8. There will be national games that the entire country can see, as well as ones shown in regional markets in two TV windows on Fridays.
“Fans would understand every Friday on the broadest platform, they could gather around the television and watch the WNBA,” Scripps president and CEO Adam Symson said in a phone interview. “We’ve seen the power of that kind of franchise and appointment-setting viewing with the NFL with Sunday night football and Thursday night. This is an incredible opportunity to be able to provide that kind of viewing experience for WNBA fans.”
The WNBA is the first sports league to air on ION and is the first sports property on the new Scripps sports platform. The league will produce all the games, but details of the programming around the games are still being worked out.
“To be the inaugural partner is really groundbreaking,” WNBA chief growth officer Colie Edison said. “The media landscape continues to evolve. We are at the forefront of that evolution.”
Over the past year, there’s been major viewership momentum for women’s basketball. The…
