The new season of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) on the E. W. Scripps Company’s Ion television network will start on Friday, May 16.
A total of 50 regular-season WNBA games will air on Ion, which also streams on leading platforms like Pluto TV, Xumo Play, Samsung TV Plus, The Roku Channel and LG Channels. State Farm is the presenting sponsor of the WNBA Friday Night Spotlight, the brand for the WNBA games airing on Ion each week.
“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, the President of 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.”
The first game on May 16 will see the Dallas Wings take on the Minnesota Lynx, with the follow-up game featuring the Golden State Valkyries and the Los Angeles Sparks.
Other games set to air during the season includes a match between the Indiana Fever and the Dallas Wings, and a game between the Las Vegas Aces and the Los Angeles Sparks.
The WNBA on Ion Studio Show will return for a second year this season, and will feature 30-minute, pre-game shows with player interviews, highlights from all the week’s games and spotlights on upcoming Ion-broadcast games.
Scripps Sports will also produce halftime and wrap-up shows for all the games aired on Friday nights.
Citing data from Nielsen and first-party streaming platforms, Scripps said its State Farm WNBA Friday Night Spotlight games saw a 133 percent increase in viewership compared to the 2023 season, when the company first began airing games on Ion.
Last September, Scripps Sports executives said WNBA games on Ion attracted more than 23 million viewers to the channel.
