The nation’s No. 1 licensee of broadcast radio stations has forged a new partnership that allows it to create “the first-ever audio platform dedicated exclusively to women’s sports.”
The agreement is between iHeartMedia and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment and allows for the launch of the Women’s Sports Audio Network (WSAN) — a free, ad-supported network that will include podcasts, daily sports reports, spotlights and audio vignettes, social content, promotion and industry event presence.
Content will be available across iHeartMedia’s broadcast, digital and podcast platforms.
The launch of the first-ever women’s sports audio network comes at a time when investment and viewership numbers for women’s sports are on the rise; just this week TEGNA scored a limited local broadcast rights deal with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, fresh off of the team’s signing of Caitlin Clark, perhaps the greatest female basketball player to date.
And, as iHeartMedia sees it, elite women’s sports are currently expected to become a $1 billion industry in 2024, representing a 300% increase in just three years. In the U.S., women’s sports receives 15% of media coverage.
“By launching a network dedicated to delivering what fans want most – more access to the athletes, the influencers, the stories and the daily conversation around all things women sports – iHeartMedia and Deep Blue aim to amplify well-known and new influential female sports athletes and relevant programming to millions of listeners nationwide, and also unlock access to inventory and opportunities for brands to engage in an emerging market across various sports and communities,” iHeartMedia says, citing recently conducted research from Deloitte stating that for every dollar spent in women’s sports, more than seven dollars was generated in “customer value for that organization.”
WSAN commentators are scheduled to include Sarah Spain and Sheryl Swoopes.
“This new partnership with Deep Blue, which is led by agency veteran Laura Correnti as Founder and CEO and WNBA Legend Sue Bird as Chief Strategy Officer, reinforces iHeartMedia’s commitment to accelerate growth in women’s sports by driving equity in coverage, representation, and access to women’s sports every day, everywhere in America through the power of iHeart’s mass reach,” iHeartMedia said.
