This is the story of how one overlooked over-the-air television network went from serial killers to penalty killers — and became a champion for an underserved segment of American sports fans.
ION’s push into women’s sports coverage is set to score another landmark Saturday afternoon when it airs the first nationally televised Professional Women’s Hockey League game, featuring the New York Sirens against the Montréal Victoire in a neutral-site clash in Detroit.
It’s the latest in a series of firsts that goes back several years, beginning with a well-timed jump into WNBA rights, a deal with the NWSL and a growing roster of live women’s sports that now includes the PWHL.
Scripps agreed to purchase ION in late 2020, and the company’s brain trust used that juncture to evaluate the strategy for a network that now reaches 126 million households.
“The prior owners for decades had a procedural strategy, dramas, hour after hour of ‘SVU,’ ‘Law & Order,’ ‘NCIS,’ all that, and it worked really well — very profitable, big audiences,” Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports, told The Post.
Lawlor remembers looking across the spectrum of sports properties and being struck by how “it’s really hard to be a women’s sports fan in America.”
“We spent a lot of time looking at the women’s space, and the one thing we recognized was, every time there was a woman’s sport on TV, it did better than the year before,” Lawlor said. “But there just wasn’t a lot of it.”
They approached the WNBA with a strategy to acquire rights and create a first-of-its-kind franchise night, consisting of national doubleheaders.
“It was a good strategy, and we got lucky,” Lawlor said.
That’s because ION’s initial three-year deal with the WNBA began in 2023, the eve of Caitlin Clark’s freight-train senior season at Iowa that segued into her move to the pros the following year with a cohort of new, name-recognized stars.
“When Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers started playing on ION, people were seeking them out,” Lawlor said, “and then they all realized, ‘Oh, I have ION.’ ”
Where once you had Olivia Benson, you now have Cameron Brink and a growing reputation as a leader in women’s sports.
“We’re about to go into our fourth season at the WNBA, and I feel like we’re finally there,” Lawlor said.
ION offers the most national broadcasts of WNBA games and NWSL matches. Their franchise nights — Friday for WNBA, Saturday for NWSL — are replete with studio shows that include weekly features on the leagues’ different personalities. For example, the first NWSL profile piece highlighted veteran defender Carson Pickett, an advocate for limb-difference awareness who was born without a left forearm and hand.
The process of incorporating the PWHL unfolded over three weeks, Lawlor says, beginning with conversations with league brass in Milan during an Olympics tournament that sparked a surge in interest in women’s hockey. In addition to Saturday’s Sirens game, ION will air the PWHL’s championship series, the Walter Cup Finals, in May.
“The popularity of those players, especially the Americans when they return back from the Olympics, was really interesting to us,” Lawlor said. “We just said, ‘The timing is right, let’s seize this moment.’ … It would be a shame if now the Olympics are gone and for a year or two, the game’s not visible. But let’s do our part and make the game visible.”
It helps that national brands — Saturday’s game is sponsored by Ally, for instance — are keen on partnering up.
“We knew we needed rights, we knew we needed an audience and we knew we needed brands,” Lawlor said. “And all three of those have to work together, and they are.”
Lawlor said ION makes money on its WNBA and NWSL investments. The commitment now is “for the long haul.”
ION’s new six-year deal with the WNBA begins in 2026, having been rescued for a labor-related delay. It’s Year 3 of a five-year deal with the NWSL.
Asked about having a bigger package of national PWHL games next season, Lawlor said, “I think the league’s hoping that, and we’re hoping that.”
“Everything we believed about the interest in women’s sports has proven itself out,” Lawlor said, “which is why it makes sense to keep doubling down.”