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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.
Malaysian Reserve
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Malaysian Reserve
State Farm® WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on ION to tip off May 16 with the most regular-season games on TV
ATLANTA, May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Scripps Sports today unveiled its broadcast plans for the 2025 WNBA season, where ION will set a new standard of weekly coverage for the league by broadcasting the most regular games of the season, 50 in total, as part of its State Farm® WNBA Friday Night Spotlight series. The State Farm® WNBA Friday Night Spotlight showcases thrilling doubleheaders from across the league on Friday nights of the regular season. ION is one of the most-watched networks on television and is available on pay TV, connected TV, free ad-supported streaming platforms and over-the-air in more than 128 million homes. 'We're proud to be the home for women's sports and lead the way in the number of regular season WNBA games on television due to our nationwide multiplatform audience reach,' said Brian Lawlor, president, Scripps Sports. 'From new franchises entering the mix to the establishment and continuation of rivalries, there is a lot of buzz around the WNBA right now, and we are thrilled to have the chance to capture that energy through our coverage.' Among the WNBA on ION plans and highlights this season: In the Studio The WNBA on ION Studio Show, the first weekly game broadcast studio show dedicated to the WNBA, will return in 2025 and will again feature: 30-minute pre-game shows including player interviews, highlights from the week's games, spotlights on upcoming matchups on ION and in-depth feature stories from around the league. Halftime shows that break down games and provide insights from the studio host and analysts. Wrap-up/preview shows in between games. Originating from Atlanta, the WNBA on ION Studio Show team features award-winning news and sports anchor Larry Smith as host, alongside analysts Autumn Johnson, the NCAA's lead personality covering women's basketball, and Meghan McKeown, basketball analyst for the Sun, NBC/Peacock, Big Ten Network, ESPN and FOX. Jay Hoover serves as studio show producer, with Nicole Denne as executive producer. On the Court The new WNBA season tips off on Friday, May 16, on ION and features a national doubleheader of debuts: The first game will see the regular season premiere of Paige Bueckers , selected No.1 overall by the Dallas Wings in the recent WNBA draft presented by State Farm®, as the Wings host the Minnesota Lynx. , selected No.1 overall by the Dallas Wings in the recent WNBA draft presented by State Farm®, as the Wings host the Minnesota Lynx. The nightcap features the first-ever game of the league's newest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, as they take on the Los Angeles Sparks. Other WNBA on ION schedule highlights include: A'ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces hosting Kelsey Plum and the Los Angeles Sparks in Plum's return to Vegas for the first time since the blockbuster trade that sent her to L.A. ( May 30 ). and the Las Vegas Aces hosting and the Los Angeles Sparks in Plum's return to Vegas for the first time since the blockbuster trade that sent her to L.A. ( ). Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever facing off against Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings in a showdown of the most recent No.1 draft picks as the Fever visit Dallas ( June 27 ). and the Indiana Fever facing off against and the Dallas Wings in a showdown of the most recent No.1 draft picks as the Fever visit ( ). The WNBA going international as the Atlanta Dream and newest star Brittney Griner plays Skylar Diggins , Nneka Ogwumike and the Seattle Storm in Vancouver for the first regular season game ever played outside the United States (Aug.15). plays and the Seattle Storm in for the first regular season game ever played outside (Aug.15). Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark going head-to-head as Reese's Chicago Sky takes on Clark's Indiana Fever ( Sept. 5 ). Growth Last Season The return of the WNBA on ION 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. To access complete details about the WNBA on ION, and find ION channel information, visit Follow @IONWNBA on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for future updates. *Sources for data: Nielsen L+SD national panel one-minute qualifier for reach, average program performance 05/14/2024-09/13/2024; FAST – Roku, Samsung TV+, LG, Vizio, Xumo, Plex, Amazon Fire Channels, Pluto, CW and Tablo. Scripps media contact: Jim Weiss, (770) 722-2142, About ION A leading general entertainment network, ION's lineup features major cable and broadcast shows, original series, live sports and special event programming. ION is part of The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP), a diversified media company focused on creating a better-informed world. As one of the nation's largest local TV broadcasters, Scripps serves communities with quality, objective local journalism and operates a portfolio of more than 60 stations in more than 40 markets. About Scripps Sports 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 Hockey Club, the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA 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. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE SCRIPPS
