The National Women’s Soccer League postseason play is underway, and the league’s first season on ION was a success. The NWSL reached more than 20.5 million total unique viewers during the season, which includes 13.5 unique to Ion.
“NWSL fans consistently showed up to watch ION every week,” Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor said. “It was an incredible first year. We expect to continue growing the audience and helping the league grow its fan
base.”
Throughout the season, ION aired 50 NWSL matches which was the most by any of the league’s media partners. ESPN, CBS Sports, and Prime Video also aired NWSL matches and the ION network aired 53 studio shows
Highlights of NWSL on ION Season 1*:
- ION delivered the largest female percentage audience of any network (57% of the P25-54 audience, 55% of the P2+ audience).
- 50% of all NWSL viewers watched matches on ION, the highest percentage of all linear broadcast partners.
- Matches drew an average audience of 145,000 P2+ per game with a high of 234,000 on July 6 for the Orlando-Kansas City match.
- NWSL matches on ION delivered more than 3.6 million hours of viewing across free ad-supported television (FAST) channels, including Roku, Samsung TV, LG, Vizio, Xumo, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Channels, Pluto, CW and Tablo.
- Scripps Sports formed more than two dozen advertising partnerships, including Capital One as presenting sponsor of NWSL on ION Saturday Night soccer.
“Our matches on ION brought incredible NWSL content to fans everywhere,” said Brian Gordon, NWSL senior
vice president of broadcast. “Beyond the matches, the ability to go in depth with our athletes and give them a platform to amplify their own stories helped our fans grow an even deeper affinity for the players, clubs and league. We are very proud of our collaboration with Scripps Sports and look forward to continuing our work together next season.”
This comes as more professional sports are transitioning from traditional pay TV distributors to over-the-air outlets. Recently, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the RSN model was broken as more teams strike deals to bring local games to OTA networks. Many NHL and MLB teams have switched to OTA broadcasts as well, including the Florida Panthers, Utah Hockey Club, and Vegas Golden Knights, who each air games on Scripps Sports affiliated stations.
You can watch Ion and the NWSL free with an antenna by using a tool like AntennaWeb to find out which ION affiliates are in your area. If you are on the go, Ion can be found on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and other compatible devices with many popular streaming services, including DIRECTV STREAM, Fubo, Frndly TV, and YouTube TV.
*Sources for data: Nielsen L+SD national panel one-minute qualifier for reach. Data for NWSL+, Prime Video and Paramount+ is not available.