E.W. Scripps aims to build new franchises in women’s sports at a moment when bigger rivals are hoping to do the same.
After striking rights deals last year for Scripps that put a Friday-night WNBA showcase as well as Saturday-night doubleheaders from the National Women’s Soccer League on its ION broadcast network, Scripps aims to build new franchises.
In the fall of 2025, ION will launch the SI Women’s Games in partnership with Sports Illustrated. Between 28 and November 2, 2025, female athletes will compete in a week-long series of team and individual competitions across basketball, gymnastics, tennis, volleyball and combat sports. ION will also serve as the exclusive television home of the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off, a premier early season college basketball tournament, for the next five years as part of a new multiyear agreement between Scripps Sports and Intersport, the agency which manages the tournament.
ION “is committed to being a premiere destination for women’s sports,” says Keisha Taylor Starr, Scripps’ chief marketing officer, during a recent interview. “Our embrace of women’s sports helps welcome younger, more multicultural and more affluent viewers.”
The executives said they expect to launch studio programming to complement each tournament.
Scripps also operates CourtTV, Grit, and Bounce, as well as the venerable Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Advertisers can rely on such media vehicles to ” connect them to audiences at scale,” says Brian Norris, the company’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer. “We made an early investment in women’s sports and the growing fandom, viewership and advertiser demand” has resulted.
In other parts of the Scripps portfolio, CourtTV will renew the true-crime series “Interview With a Killer,” which set records as the network’s most-watched original in its debut last fall. The series is hosted by investigative reporter and journalist David Scott. Bounce TV will renew the comedy “Mind Your Business,: which will return for a second season on June 7 at 8 p.m. eastern.
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