Plenty of media companies are filling their schedules with all kinds of women’s sports, ranging from WNBA games to League One Volleyball match-ups. ESPN wants to do them one better.
When the Disney-backed sports-media giant launches “Women’s Sports Sunday” this weekend, it will mark a quiet revolution of sorts. ESPN’s nine weeks of WNBA or NWSL games will replace what had been an end-of-week mainstay, “Sunday Night Baseball,” which aired for 35 seasons. The symbolism is not lost on anyone.
“We actually don’t even use language like ‘initiative,” says Susie Piotrkowski, vice president of women’s sports programming at ESPN, during a recent interview. “We build franchises, and that’s what we think we’re doing here.”
ESPN is giving women’s sports a primetime perch on a night that has long been dominated by sports-media stand-outs like “Sunday Night Football.” In doing so, the company hopes it can develop another signature property, even if the majority of sports continues to be dominated by games played by men. In a bid to make sure the games get seen, “Women’s Sports Sunday” will appear across ESPN, ESPN2, the ESPN App, Disney+ and ESPN Deportes. Retailer TJMaxx will serve as a presenting sponsor, and work with ESPN to call attention to athletes, teams and leagues.
