Latest news with #SIWomen'sGames
Business Wire
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Scripps Partners With Freewheel to Accelerate Advertiser Investment Across Women's Sports and Live Events Including the WNBA and NWSL
CINCINNATI & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) is partnering with FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the television advertising industry, to increase advertising opportunities across women's live sports content on ION, Scripps' national sports and entertainment network that reaches every U.S. TV household over-the-air and on all major pay TV and connected TV services. Bringing audiences the excitement of WNBA and NWSL games alongside original programming like the 'State Farm ® WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on ION,' ION is offering brands a premium way to be part of the energy around women's sports. Last month, Scripps also announced that ION will be the exclusive television home to both the inaugural SI Women's Games and the Elevance Health Women's Fort Myers Tip Off college basketball tournament. Through this partnership, Scripps and Freewheel aim to not only increase investment in women's sports but also bring new advertisers to the arena. 'In addition to surges in viewership across our tentpole women's sports content on ION last year, we saw more than two dozen new brands advertising with Scripps,' says Seth Walters, head of CTV sales at Scripps. 'As the demand for women's sports content accelerates and viewers increasingly seek it on streaming and connected TV platforms, we want to continue to bring more brands into the fold through our expanding roster of live women's sports and our always-on distribution.' FreeWheel's focus on the growth of programmatic advertising across sports and live events in streaming is reflected in an enhanced product suite built to handle the unique challenges of live TV. With expedited programmatic activation via creative pre-approvals, tools to anticipate real time viewership that ensure proper pacing and ad-serving at scale, FreeWheel is ensuring that programmatic advertising can support the continued growth of live sports across streaming. 'CTV monetization through the first eight weeks of this NWSL on ION season has seen a major uptick vs. last season, increasing over 200%,' says Walters. 'We are looking forward to working with FreeWheel to power this explosive streaming growth and unlock new monetization opportunities for the forthcoming season of the WNBA.' The return of the WNBA on ION this Friday, May 16, follows a successful 2024 season where average viewership for the State Farm ® WNBA Friday Night Spotlight increased by 133% over 2023 and attracted more than 23 million unique viewers across games and wrap shows. 'Coordination between publishers, advertisers, and tech partners is critical to ensure the success of these live events,' says Greg Bel, Vice President, Head of Supply at FreeWheel. 'Scripps and ION are meaningful players in the connected TV space, and, through our partnership, we are ensuring that advertisers who rely on programmatic as their primary buying strategy can take advantage of the growing momentum of women's sports to put their brands in front of highly engaged audiences.' The popularity of women's sports is set to continue growing, with 36% of fans who do not currently watch women's sports saying they plan to in the next 12 months, according to Comcast Advertising's 2024 ' Behind the Remote: A Deep Dive into Sports Viewership & Fandom ' report. About Scripps: Scripps Sports serves professional and college sports leagues, conferences and teams with local market depth and national broadcast reach. Scripps Sports currently has partnerships with the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2024 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the 2023 Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, the new Utah Mammoth and the NCAA's Big Sky Conference. Scripps Sports is a division of The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP), a Fortune 1000 American media company. About FreeWheel FreeWheel empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit and follow us on X and LinkedIn.
Axios
15-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Women's sports coverage goes mainstream
Following a breakout year in 2024, roughly a dozen publishers have introduced new, specialized coverage plans for women's sports. Why it matters: Once a niche topic, outlets now see women's sports as a driver of readership, revenue and growth. Driving the news: USA Today is launching a new content vertical on women's sports called USA Today Studio IX that will feature news, multimedia content and events. The studio will include coverage about professional leagues like the WNBA, WTA and LPGA, along with college and high school sports and the Olympics. USA Today's network of 200 local publications will contribute to the coverage. The hub will feature news stories, videos and photo galleries. Team members include USA Today columnist Nancy Armour and staff writer Meghan Hall. Zoom out: As viewership and attendance for women's sporting events has skyrocketed, so too has the marketing and commerce opportunities for brands. Ad spending on women's sports more than doubled last year, according to marketing analytics firm EDO. Ads aired during women's sports programs were 40% more impactful than the average primetime ad. The big picture: For media companies facing an increasingly competitive economic environment, women's sports have become an opportunity to expand their businesses. Below are some of the new investments: Television: Sports Illustrated announced last week it will host the SI Women's Games, a biennial event with athletes competing across six sports that will broadcast domestically in prime time with Scripps Sports and ION. CNBC debuted a new women's sports event on the sidelines of the Women's NCAA Championship this month sponsored by JPMorganChase. It's partnering with Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment to livestream Deep Blue's annual Business of Women's Sports Summit this year. Roku Channel is launching Women's Sports Now, a weekly studio show on women's sports, hosted by WNBA star Renee Montgomery and comedian Sarah Tiana. All Women's Sports Network was launched by Whoopi Goldberg and streaming media company JungoTV last year and is available in the U.S. on Vizio WatchFree+. Online: Bleacher Report created B/R W, a social brand focused on women's sports, on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok earlier this year. The Athletic and Yahoo Sports teamed up to launch a hub for women's sports coverage on Yahoo Sports' website and app, last fall. The Information hired its first sports reporter last winter to cover the business and focus on women's sports. Front Office Sports also brought on its first reporter to cover women's sports exclusively. The Associated Press last month said it is doubling down on women's coverage, adding a new dedicated reporter to cover the N.Y. Liberty and dedicating robust coverage to the new 3-on-3 Unrivaled basketball league. Betches Media introduced a sports vertical, Betches Sports, to cover sports news and culture, including women's sports, for its audience. Audio: iHeartMedia and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment created the Women's Sports Audio Network, the first audio platform dedicated to women's sports. Multiple publishers have debuted new women's sports podcasts, including The Athletic, The Ringer, Vox Media and Just Women's Sports, joining publishers like CBS Sports, The Guardian and others with existing women's focused shows. Between the lines: In addition to mainstream coverage, there's also been a rise of new women's sports-specific media business, such as The Gist and Just Women's Sports, which launched in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Earlier this month, former Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc was named executive chair of Togethxr, a women's sports media and commerce startup founded by top female athletes such as Alex Morgan and Sue Bird. What to watch: More ad agencies are investing in women's sports programs to drive ad dollars to new coverage efforts.
Axios
09-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Sports Illustrated to launch new live competition event "SI Women's Games"
Sports Illustrated is debuting a brand new biennial event this fall called the SI Women's Games that will feature elite athletes competing across six sports for a prize pool payout. Why it matters: The breadth and scale of the event shows how much Minute Media is looking to invest in the 70-year-old sports magazine. "This is how we want to bring the brand and push it forward," said Minute Media president Rich Routman."We want to build a multi-platform asset, not just a website or just a print product or otherwise." Catch up quick: Minute Media brokered a 10-year licensing deal for digital and print rights to publish Sports Illustrated in 2024. The company, which is home to sports and entertainment sites like The Players' Tribune and Mental Floss, was valued at more than $1 billion following its latest fundraising round last year. One year in, the deal has revitalized Sports Illustrated, after a tumultuous few months that left the fate of the venerated sports outlet up in the air. The first year of the partnership "reestablished the backbone of what Sports Illustrated is," said longtime Sports Illustrated editor-in-chief Steve Cannella. "The next 12 months is about breaking new ground." Details: The SI Women's Games will feature the world's top athletes coming together to compete across a slew of different events, including basketball, gymnastics, tennis, flag football and volleyball. The format is similar to The Ryder Cup, a biennial men's golf competition. Athletes will be divided into two teams — one that will represent Team America (Canada, U.S., Latin America, etc.) versus Team World (Europe, Africa, Asia, etc.), per Routman. Athletes will be paid to participate in the event, and there's also a prize pool for the winning teams. The event will take place in Oceanside, California from Oct. 28 to Nov. 2. Between the lines: The competition will be broadcast live domestically in prime time through a multi-year partnership with Scripps Sports and ION, one of the most widely-distributed broadcast TV networks in the country. The company also plans to add international distribution partners. Sports Illustrated will also invest in extensive coverage of the event across its digital, video and social media channels, Cannella said. Zoom out: The event is part of a larger effort by Sports Illustrated to invest in women's sports coverage. Earlier this year, the company named Simone Biles its 2024 Sportsperson of the Year. The big picture: Women's sports have experienced a historic surge over the past year, as more investors line up to cash in on rising audience demand. Several U.S. women's sports leagues, including the National Women's Soccer League's (NWSL) and the WNBA have brokered record TV rights deals in the past few years. Team sales have also seen record valuations.
