# Scripps Sports

Scripps Sports is the sports division of the E. W. Scripps Company; it is responsible for the broadcasting of sporting events across its broadcast television portfolio, including local stations and co-owned networks (such as Ion Television).

## History

Prior to the formation of Scripps Sports, in May 2022, The E.W. Scripps Company reached an agreement with the Big Sky Conference to air 14 conference football games and as many as eight women's or men's basketball games involving Montana State University and University of Montana on the Scripps owned Montana Television Network. In 2025, Scripps Sports and the Big Sky extended their agreement through the 2029–30 season.
The formation of Scripps Sports was announced in December 2022. Company president Adam P. Symson stated that the division planned to compete with regional sports networks to pursue local rights to professional sports teams for its stations, and pursue national broadcasting contracts for its Ion Media division (including Ion Television). He argued that the pay television RSN industry was an "old model" that is "not set up to move forward", and that "we are really well-situated to participate in future models with sports teams, leagues, and conferences."
In April 2023, Scripps Sports announced its first broadcast contract, a regular season package of Friday-night WNBA basketball games for Ion. In March 2025, Scripps announced it had acquired the local rights to the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces.
The following month, with AT&T SportsNet winding down, Scripps Sports reached an agreement for regional rights to the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL. The games would be syndicated to stations within the team's designated market (with KMCC as flagship; the station moved Ion to a digital subchannel and became an independent station), and offered via the subscription-based over-the-top service KnightTime+. In October 2023, it also reached an agreement with the Arizona Coyotes, after Bally Sports Arizona rejected its contract with the team and subsequently shut down not long afterward. After initially airing on the Antenna TV-affiliated KNXV-DT2, KASW moved its The CW affiliation to that channel and similarly converted to an independent station to accommodate Coyotes games (Scripps would later relinquish its CW affiliation entirely, with majority owner Nexstar Media Group taking over KAZT-TV under a time brokerage agreement, and moving The CW to it in February 2024).
On November 9, 2023, the National Women's Soccer League announced Scripps Sports as a rightsholder beginning in the 2024 season, with Ion to air Saturday night doubleheaders. Ion will also air the 2024 NWSL Draft.
In April 2024, the NHL deactivated the Coyotes franchise and their players and personnel were transferred to a new Salt Lake City-based expansion team. Scripps' KUPX-TV in Salt Lake City, which had been televising Coyotes and Golden Knights games, will continue to carry the former's games, but now as the Utah Hockey Club's flagship station. The team's telecasts are being produced in-house by team owner Smith Entertainment Group.
In July 2024, the Florida Panthers announced a deal with Scripps Sports to move its games from Bally Sports Florida, with WSFL-TV in Miami as flagship station.
On August 18, 2024, Ion aired the finals of the Manhattan Beach Open beach volleyball tournament as part of a one-off deal with the Association of Volleyball Professionals.

## Programs
### Current national broadcast rights

* NWSL
** Saturday Night Soccer; 25 weeks of regular season matches on Saturday nights per-season on Ion Television (2024–present)
** 2024 NWSL Draft
* WNBA
** Friday Night Spotlight; 15 weeks of regular season games per-season on Ion Television (2023–present)

### Current regional broadcast rights

| Team | League | Flagship station | Affiliates | OTT subscription outlet |
| Montana and Montana State (2022–present) (Football, Men's Basketball and Women's Basketball) | Big Sky Conference | Montana Television Network | KTVQ/Billings, Montana KRTV/Great Falls, Montana KXLH-LD/Helena, Montana KXLF/Butte, Montana KBZK/Bozeman, Montana KPAX/Missoula, Montana KAJJ-CD/Kalispell, Montana | ESPN+ (both in-market and out-of-market) |
| Florida Panthers (2024–present) | NHL | WSFL-TV/Miami, Florida | WHDT/Stuart, Florida WFTX-DT3/Cape Coral, Florida | Panthers+ (in-market) |
| Utah Hockey Club (2024–present) | NHL | KUPX-TV/Provo, Utah | KSTU-DT2/Salt Lake City, Utah (overflow for KUPX) KWBA-TV/Tucson, Arizona KASW/Phoenix, Arizona | SEG+ (in-market) |
| Vegas Golden Knights (2023–present) | NHL | KMCC/Laughlin, Nevada | KNSN-TV/Reno, Nevada KIVI-DT2/Boise, Idaho and KSAW-LD2/Twin Falls, Idaho Montana Television Network DT2 subchannels KUPX-TV/Provo, Utah (ends 2024) KWBA-TV/Tucson, Arizona KASW/Phoenix, Arizona | KnightTime+ (in-market) |
| Las Vegas Aces (2025–present) | WNBA | KMCC/Laughlin, Nevada | | |

### Former regional broadcast rights

| Team | League | Flagship station | Affiliates | OTT subscription outlet |
| Arizona Coyotes (2023–2024) | NHL | KASW/Phoenix, Arizona KNXV-TV/Phoenix, Arizona (former) | KGUN-DT2/Tucson, Arizona KUPX-TV/Provo, Utah KSTU-DT2/Salt Lake City, Utah (overflow for KUPX) | Coyotes Central (in-market) |