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Athlos inks multiyear media rights deal with ION

September 10, 2025
Athlos — Alexis Ohanian’s elite women-only track competition — entered a multiyear partnership with Scripps Sports yesterday to make its Ion network the domestic linear broadcast partner for this year’s Athlos NYC competition taking place October 10th.
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Athlos inks multiyear media rights deal with IONAthlos inks multiyear media rights deal with ION
Source: The Running Channel via Athlos

The GIST: Athlos — Alexis Ohanian’s elite women-only track competition — entered a multiyear partnership with Scripps Sports yesterday to make its Ion network the domestic linear broadcast partner for this year’s Athlos NYC competition taking place October 10th.

  • The partnership highlights the symbiotic relationship between rising sports network Ion and emerging women’s sports leagues: the channel gets content while granting leagues national exposure at a pivotal growth point. On your marks.

The details: After last year’s iteration pulled in 3M viewers without any broadcast TV partner, Ion will air this year’s Athlos NYC event in addition to future Athlos competitions as it eyes expansion in the coming year. Similar to what it’s done for its WNBA and NWSL programming, Ion is creating a pre-show for Athlos NYC this year called Icons on ION.

The impact: Amid its broad interest in acquiring sports rights, Ion has seen success airing WNBA and NWSL games, cementing the network’s strategy to expand in women’s sports. This fall, Ion will broadcast the inaugural SI Women’s Games as well as the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off, another women’s college hoops tournament.

  • Ion reaches an estimated 128M homes, while Athlos will also continue to air content across X and YouTube. Last year’s meet streamed live on X, Instagram, YouTube, and ESPN+ before re-airing on ESPN2 the next day, with the X stream garnering 2.5M views and YouTube’s drawing 100K.

The landscape: Emerging women’s leagues have benefitted from national broadcast exposure, such as PVF’s deal with CBS, Unrivaled’s TNT agreement , and LOVB and AUSL’s respective deals with ESPN. While streaming exposure helps, it typically only reels in avid fans seeking content — the better way to gain new viewership and convert casual fans is to get it on cable.

Zooming out: Athlos isn’t the only league interested in harnessing the potential of track and field interest outside the Olympic cycle, but the concept isn’t panning out equally for everyone in the market. Ion’s bet on Athlos (and the SI Women’s Games) signals to the broader market that they’re making a big push now for the next Olympic cycle.

  • It makes sense for Ion to get in early on what could be an on-ramp to LA28 running hype, but there’s also an opportunity for brands to activate around women track and field athletes, who have proven they can market so much more than apparel. Running the game.
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