Keisha Taylor Starr joined ION as Chief Marketing Officer in early 2022 when the E.W. Scripps–owned broadcast network held zero women's sports broadcast rights and occupied the exact tier of cable real estate most agencies ignore during upfront negotiations. Twenty-four months later ION carries 67 WNBA games per season, claims the network's highest-rated programming in the women's 25-54 demographic, and closed $47 million in women's sports sponsorship deals for fiscal 2024.
The velocity matters because ION achieved these figures without traditional primetime inventory. The network occupies channel positions in the high 40s and low 50s on most cable systems—placement that historically correlates with sub-0.2 Nielsen ratings and sponsorship rates in the low five figures per game. Taylor Starr structured ION's WNBA package around weekend afternoon windows and negotiated marquee matchups with the league's smallest travel budgets, then built sponsorship models around endemic women's health and financial services categories that legacy sports broadcasters had underdeveloped. State Farm, Google, and Glossier came in as anchor sponsors within the first six months. The network reported 4.3 million unique viewers for its women's basketball programming in Q2 2024, a 340% increase year-over-year, though from a low base.
The operational model repurposes practices Taylor Starr developed during her tenure at Scripps Networks, where she ran brand strategy for HGTV and Food Network during their highest-margin years. She applies the same cost-per-acquisition rigor to sports broadcast deals that cable lifestyle programmers use for home-renovation shows. ION tracks sponsorship performance not by traditional GRP metrics but by direct-response conversion rates and long-term brand lift studies conducted with Nielsen and Kantar. The network claims its women's sports sponsors see 2.7x higher brand favorability scores among women viewers than comparable NFL or NBA sponsorships, though ION has not released raw data for independent verification. Worth noting: the methodology mirrors luxury automotive brands' shift toward conversion-based media buying rather than reach-based models, a trend accelerating across categories where lifetime customer value exceeds $50,000.
Family office principals and hospitality developers should watch how ION structures its venue-partnership model. The network has begun bundling broadcast sponsorships with in-arena signage rights and experiential activations at 12 WNBA arenas, creating integrated media packages that start at $850,000 per season. These packages include hospitality suites, courtside seating blocks, and co-branded watch parties in secondary markets—inventory that maps directly onto the relationship-building infrastructure single-family offices use for client entertainment and deal origination. Condé Nast and Vogue have already signed as season-long partners for two teams, indicating that heritage media brands see the model as both advertising and distribution strategy. The network plans to expand this framework to women's college basketball by Q4 2024 and professional volleyball by mid-2025.
ION will face inventory constraints within eighteen months if current growth rates hold. The network has 168 total broadcast hours per week and already dedicates 31% of weekend dayparts to women's sports. Taylor Starr has indicated the company is exploring digital streaming extensions and considering whether to launch a women's sports–specific FAST channel, though no firm commitments have been announced. The WNBA's next media rights negotiation begins in Q1 2026, and ION's ability to secure expanded rights will depend on whether Scripps allocates acquisition capital against competing bids from ESPN, Amazon, and Apple, all of whom are building women's sports portfolios. The tell will be whether ION begins hiring sports production staff at scale before the end of this calendar year.