Last year, Scripps Sports landed a media rights deal with the WNBA, bringing weekly Friday night windows to Ion. While coverage plans for the 2024 season have yet to be announced, it appears they’ll be expanding a bit.
Per Variety, WNBA studio coverage will be coming to Ion’s schedule, which begins on May 17 this season.
A new WNBA season that ION will cover starting May 17 features weekly studio shows — the first time in the league’s history that a linear network has devoted such coverage. ION has also developed studio shows for the NWSL built around pre-match, halftime and post-match, also the first weekly studio shows dedicated to the league by any network
The specific studio shows have yet to be announced.
If Ion’s plans with the NWSL are any indication, the studio coverage will exist in the form of shoulder programming surrounding live games. When announcing NWSL coverage plans for 2024, Ion touted the “first-ever weekly studio shows dedicated to the NWSL,” similar to the wording in the Variety story. These studio shows consist of 30-minute pregame shows, halftime shows, wrap-up/preview shows in between doubleheaders, and post-match shows.
The increase in coverage will likely create a larger block of Friday WNBA content on Ion to go along with the network’s NWSL block on Saturdays. That seems like a smart move to maximize eyeballs for the Friday night windows, also increasing Ion’s commitment to the league in the future.
[Variety]
