Ion posts record viewership numbers and ad sales after explosive WNBA season

The GIST: Ion bet early on the WNBA with a media rights partnership, a move that’s paying off more than ever in 2024. The network released historic viewership numbers and advertising sales for the latest WNBA season yesterday that should spur the network to re-sign with the league. Bet on women.

The network: Scripps bought the Ion Network in 2020 and launched its Scripps Sports division in 2022, which has banked deals with the WNBA, NWSL, and three NHL teams. Scripps paid $39M for Friday night WNBA games on Ion from 2023 to 2025, while its NWSL deal for Saturday night matches on Ion is part of the league’s $240M media rights deal through 2027.

• Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor previously told The GIST that women’s sports are helping diversify Ion’s programming. When Scripps acquired Ion, the channel was primarily scripted dramas and lacked sports programming, so Lawlor looked at media rights deals up for grabs and saw opportunity in the women’s game.

The numbers: Ion’s WNBA viewership more than doubled YoY with 23.37M viewers across the entire season. Ion has Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever to thank: The team starred in all seven broadcasts that averaged more than 1M viewers. Ion’s increased investment in its studio show offerings also paid off — its WNBA Friday Night Spotlight averaged 670K viewers, up 133% YoY.

• In terms of key demographics, male viewership between the ages of 25 and 54 grew by 181%. Even better? The network balled out when it came to reaching women fans, with Ion drawing the largest female audience compared to the W’s other media partners. Among all Ion WNBA viewers, 45% were women and 50% of viewers aged 18 to 49 were women.

• Advertisers took note of Ion’s expanded reach, with more than 20 new brands snatching up air time on the channel’s WNBA broadcasts. And though it only broadcast W games for two seasons, Ion has quickly become a fan favorite, with about 9.46M of its viewers catching the league’s games only on Ion and not competing media partners.

Lingering question: The numbers are great, but as of right now, Ion isn’t included in the next WNBA media rights deal. It’s been reported that current WNBA rights holders Ion and CBS — who were left out of the joint three-network deal with the NBA in July — could still sign deals with the league. Watch this space.