That is the story of how one neglected over-the-air tv community went from serial killers to penalty killers — and have become a champion for an underserved phase of American sports activities followers.
ION’s push into ladies’s sports activities protection is about to attain one other landmark Saturday afternoon when it airs the primary nationally televised Skilled Girls’s Hockey League recreation, that includes the New York Sirens in opposition to the Montréal Victoire in a neutral-site conflict in Detroit.
Commercial
It’s the most recent in a sequence of firsts that goes again a number of years, starting with a well-timed soar into WNBA rights, a cope with the NWSL and a rising roster of stay ladies’s sports activities that now consists of the PWHL.
Scripps agreed to buy ION in late 2020, and the corporate’s mind belief used that juncture to guage the technique for a community that now reaches 126 million households.
Savannah Norcross of the New York Sirens celebrates with teammates after scoring her first PWHL objective through the third interval of the sport in opposition to the Vancouver Goldeneyes on December 31, 2025 on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey. Getty Pictures
“The prior house owners for many years had a procedural technique, dramas, hour after hour of ‘SVU,’ ‘Legislation & Order,’ ‘NCIS,’ all that, and it labored rather well — very worthwhile, massive audiences,” Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports activities, advised The Submit.
Commercial
Lawlor remembers wanting throughout the spectrum of sports activities properties and being struck by how “it’s actually laborious to be a ladies’s sports activities fan in America.”
“We spent numerous time wanting on the ladies’s house, and the one factor we acknowledged was, each time there was a lady’s sport on TV, it did higher than the yr earlier than,” Lawlor stated. “However there simply wasn’t numerous it.”
They approached the WNBA with a technique to accumulate rights and create a first-of-its-kind franchise night time, consisting of nationwide doubleheaders.
“It was a great technique, and we obtained fortunate,” Lawlor stated.
That’s as a result of ION’s preliminary three-year cope with the WNBA started in 2023, the eve of Caitlin Clark’s freight-train senior season at Iowa that segued into her transfer to the professionals the next yr with a cohort of recent, name-recognized stars.
Commercial
“When Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers began enjoying on ION, individuals have been looking for them out,” Lawlor stated, “after which all of them realized, ‘Oh, I’ve ION.’ ”
The place when you had Olivia Benson, you now have Cameron Brink and a rising status as a pacesetter in ladies’s sports activities.
Caitlin Clark of the US performs through the recreation on the 2026 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Match between New Zealand and the US in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 15, 2026. NurPhoto through Getty Pictures
“We’re about to enter our fourth season on the WNBA, and I really feel like we’re lastly there,” Lawlor stated.
ION provides essentially the most nationwide broadcasts of WNBA video games and NWSL matches. Their franchise nights — Friday for WNBA, Saturday for NWSL — are replete with studio reveals that embody weekly options on the leagues’ completely different personalities. For instance, the primary NWSL profile piece highlighted veteran defender Carson Pickett, an advocate for limb-difference consciousness who was born with no left forearm and hand.
Commercial
The method of incorporating the PWHL unfolded over three weeks, Lawlor says, starting with conversations with league brass in Milan throughout an Olympics match that sparked a surge in curiosity in ladies’s hockey. Along with Saturday’s Sirens recreation, ION will air the PWHL’s championship sequence, the Walter Cup Finals, in Might.
“The recognition of these gamers, particularly the Individuals once they return again from the Olympics, was actually attention-grabbing to us,” Lawlor stated. “We simply stated, ‘The timing is true, let’s seize this second.’ … It might be a disgrace if now the Olympics are gone and for a yr or two, the sport’s not seen. However let’s do our half and make the sport seen.”
Hayley Scamurra of the Montréal Victoire celebrates a objective in opposition to the Minnesota Frost through the third interval at Grand On line casino Area on March 25, 2026 in St Paul, Minnesota. Getty Pictures
It helps that nationwide manufacturers — Saturday’s recreation is sponsored by Ally, as an example — are eager on partnering up.
Commercial
“We knew we would have liked rights, we knew we would have liked an viewers and we knew we would have liked manufacturers,” Lawlor stated. “And all three of these must work collectively, and they’re.”
Lawlor stated ION makes cash on its WNBA and NWSL investments. The dedication now could be “for the lengthy haul.”
ION’s new six-year cope with the WNBA begins in 2026, having been rescued for a labor-related delay. It’s Yr 3 of a five-year cope with the NWSL.
Requested about having a much bigger package deal of nationwide PWHL video games subsequent season, Lawlor stated, “I believe the league’s hoping that, and we’re hoping that.”
“All the pieces we believed concerning the curiosity in ladies’s sports activities has confirmed itself out,” Lawlor stated, “which is why it is smart to maintain doubling down.”