Scripps Sports secures PWHL broadcast rights agreement for national U.S. distribution

This partnership provides the Professional Women’s Hockey League with consistent linear and digital visibility, solving the fragmentation issues that often plague nascent sports leagues. By leveraging ION’s broad reach alongside a dedicated sports FAST channel, Scripps is creating a hybrid distribution model that captures both traditional cord-cutters and broadcast audiences. This move reinforces the trend of networks using women's sports as a primary growth engine for ad-supported tiers and free streaming services. Watch for viewership data from the new expansion markets in Detroit and Las Vegas to gauge how local broadcast support impacts national league growth.

The Professional Women's Hockey League has rapidly built a multi-platform distribution strategy since its January 2024 launch. In its inaugural season, the PWHL partnered with YouTube for free global streaming of all games, a move that generated over 100 million views across the season and established a digital-first baseline before any traditional broadcast commitments. The league's second season added a multi-year agreement with ESPN that placed games on ESPN2 and ESPN+, marking the first major linear sports network to carry women's professional hockey on a recurring basis. Scripps Sports now enters as the third major distribution partner, adding broadcast network reach through ION that neither YouTube nor ESPN provided in the same free-to-air format.

Scripps Sports has been aggressively building its women's sports portfolio as a core business strategy. In 2024, Scripps secured the national broadcast rights to the NWSL through a multi-year deal that placed matches on ION, which became the first standalone national broadcast package for women's professional soccer in the United States. The company also launched the Scripps Sports Network FAST channel to serve as a dedicated home for its growing slate of women's sports content. PWHL commissioner Amy Scheer, who previously served as president of the NWSL's Gotham FC, brings direct experience with the Scripps distribution model. Brian Lawlor, who leads Scripps Sports, has positioned the division as a low-cost, high-volume sports rights aggregator targeting underserved leagues that lack the scale to command premium cable fees.

The broader economics of women's sports media rights are shifting as viewership data validates investment. The PWHL's 2024-25 season averaged over 300,000 viewers per game across its broadcast and streaming partners, a figure that outperformed several established men's professional leagues on a per-game basis during comparable time slots. ION itself has grown to reach approximately 150 million U.S. television households through its affiliation agreements with major station groups, according to Scripps' investor disclosures in early 2025. This distribution footprint gives the PWHL a potential audience comparable to what the WNBA achieved after its 2024 media rights renewal, when the league's viewership surged 44% year-over-year following expanded broadcast commitments from ABC, ESPN, and Ion. The Scripps deal positions the PWHL to replicate that trajectory with a dedicated weekly broadcast slot rather than relying on overflow scheduling.