When iHeartMedia and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment took their Women’s Sports Audio Network (WSAN) to Cannes Lions, they weren’t just seeking brand sponsors—they wanted to show receipts.

Today, iHeart and Deep Blue announced WSAN’s initial lineup of shows available across iHeartMedia’s broadcast, digital and podcast platforms. Plus, starting June 18, WSAN is launching “Women’s Sports Reports” across more than 500 iHeartMedia broadcast stations throughout the United States.

In addition, Capital One, e.l.f. Cosmetics and e.l.f. Skin will serve as WSAN’s founding brand partners.

Since issuing a report on the divide between marketers and American consumers last year, Gayle Troberman, iHeart’s CMO, and the company have attempted to address certain biases within both marketing and media. She points to a 2023 study by Wasserman’s women-focused practice, The Collective, that found just a 15% share of sports media coverage dedicated to women’s sports—despite women’s events accounting for 50% of all sports competitions in the U.S.

Additionally, if you take collegiate sports out of the equation, professional women’s sports get just 8% of sports media’s attention despite growing viewership.

“Part of the challenge has been marketer bias towards the big men’s leagues and doing what’s safe, what we’ve always done,” Troberman said. “Part of the challenge has been a lack of scaled media opportunities for brands around women’s sports.”

That’s part of the reason why iHeartMedia is activating the “Women’s Sports Reports” live at the Cannes Lions Festival from Deep Blue’s Women’s Sports House, which it’s hosting in partnership with Axios. Troberman wants to show WSAN’s ability to reach every corner of the U.S. and also its opportunity to provide both women’s sports and their sponsors with a big, predictable reach. 

Deep Blue co-founder and Giant Spoon partner Laura Correnti noted that women’s sports media traditionally has been sold on a cost per thousand (CPM) or scale-based model that punishes a lack of coverage or primetime placement. As the sports media landscape shifts, demand for women’s sports increases and advertisers take notice, ventures including WSAN provide previously nonexistent opportunities for women’s sports and potential sponsors.

“For advertisers looking for reach and efficiency, our ability to not only create first-to-market women’s sports content but also leverage the scale of iHeartMedia’s broadcast, satellite and streaming platforms to promote and distribute it, opens up the aperture for brands to invest and see return against those investment mandatories and marketing KPIs,” Correnti said.

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