Scripps and ION Bet Big on Volleyball Rights

Scripps Sports is making a clear statement about where the next wave of rights value can be created: not only in premium pay bundles, but in free-to-air scale. The company said Tuesday that it has secured an exclusive U.S. domestic broadcast agreement for the 2027 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup, with every one of the tournament’s 64 matches airing across ION and Scripps Sports platforms in both English and Spanish.

The tournament, scheduled for August and September 2027 across the United States and Canada, will feature 32 national teams in a three-week format. For Scripps, the property is less about a single event and more about a portfolio strategy, adding volleyball to a growing slate of women’s sports rights that already includes WNBA, NWSL and PWHL.

Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports, framed the deal as an opportunity to put an elite international competition in front of mainstream audiences, rather than forcing fans into a fragmented streaming search. “We’re thrilled and honored to bring the 2027 event to ION and to the millions of loyal and passionate volleyball fans across the United States,” he said.

Craig Thompson, CEO of the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup 2027, called the agreement “an unprecedented level of U.S. distribution” for the property, signalling that volleyball’s growth thesis in North America is now tied to reach as much as it is to monetization. That matters for sponsors, too: Scripps said it will collaborate with Horizon Sports and Experiences on title and presenting sponsorship packages around the event.

The business logic is straightforward. ION, an over-the-air network that Scripps says reaches more than 126 million U.S. households, gives brands a predictable, mass-reach environment at a moment when women’s sports is moving from goodwill narratives into hard budgets. For rights holders, a broad distribution platform can also function as a top-of-funnel acquisition engine for participation, merchandise and future domestic leagues.

For investors and operators, the read-through is that women’s sports rights are being priced not only on scarcity, but on packaging discipline: consistent windows, bilingual feeds, and sponsorship inventory designed for national buyers. Expect more mid-tier broadcasters to chase similar tentpoles, especially where production costs are controllable and the upside is in ad sales and carriage economics rather than pure subscriber ARPU.

If the next era of sports media is defined by reach plus precision, this deal is a reminder that the simplest distribution still wins when the product is strong. Build the flywheel, then compound it for The Greatest Good.

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