Khristina Williams To Headline iHeartMedia Women’s Basketball Podcast

iHeartMedia is betting on women’s sports – again. This week, America’s leading audio media company debuted its newest show, In Case You Missed It with Khristina Williams, which is a weekly podcast where WNBA insider Khristina Williams breaks down the biggest stories in women’s basketball. The show is the second to launch as part of the newly formed Women’s Sports Audio Network, which is the first-ever audio platform dedicated to women’s sports.

Williams, a leading voice in the women’s basketball media space, is a 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 – Sports honoree who began her journey covering women’s basketball when she founded the social-digital media platform Girls Talk Sports TV in 2018. Williams created the platform after recognizing a large gender gap in basketball coverage.

“I remember just scrolling through social media and seeing all of these men’s sports pages cover the NBA highlights. I thought to myself: why don’t we have this for women’s basketball? It was so hard to find information about the women’s games, news stories, and coverage,” said Williams. “I just decided that instead of waiting on the sidelines for something to happen, that I was going to be an active participant. Instead of waiting for an opportunity, I decided to step out on faith and carve out my own opportunity.”

Game-Changing Coverage

Williams’ niche within sports media is delivering breaking women’s basketball news, daily updates, and exclusive interviews with WNBA and NCAA athletes. Through her coverage, Williams hopes to bridge the gap between sports fans and athletes through delivering honest content and amplifying the voices of women in sports through storytelling. In addition to her work at Girls Talk Sports TV, Williams’ coverage of women’s sports has been featured through MSG Networks, Yahoo Sports, Athletes Unlimited, the WNBA, Just Women’s Sports, WSLAM, Spotify, New York Post Sports, NBC digital, and SportsNet New York.

“I’ve been shouting to the mountaintops for years that we need daily, original programming for women’s sports – but specifically for women’s basketball.” Williams went on to say, “When you look at NBA coverage, you see them cover everything from free agency, to the schedules, to rivalries. I think that we have to keep fans engaged beyond just the season, so I advocate for 365 days of [women’s basketball] coverage.”

In Case You Missed It with Khristina Williams aims to bring listeners the inside scoop on what’s trending in women’s basketball through exclusive interviews with the sport’s biggest stars. Williams hopes that every week the show will be a place that fans can come to find everything they might have “missed” from the previous week about the WNBA and beyond.

Women’s Basketball Media Ratings & Investment Are Up

iHeartMedia is launching In Case You Missed It with Khristina Williams at a time when investment into women’s basketball media is at an all-time high. ESPN is reportedly planning to add a daily women’s basketball show to its programming lineup, and the WNBA just announced a landmark media deal with Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and NBC Universal, reported to be worth about $200 million per year and $2.2 billion over the agreement’s 11-year lifespan. The league’s current media deal is valued at about $60 million per year.

The increased value of women’s basketball media is not surprising as ratings are also soaring to all-time highs. Notably, the 2024 women’s NCAA basketball championship game saw an average of 18.9 million viewers, outperforming the men’s final by over 4 million viewers, and a record-setting 3.44 million people tuned in to watch the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game on ABC, beating the previous record by nearly 2 million viewers.

A New Wave of Women’s Sports Media

In Case You Missed It with Khristina Williams is part of a collective of new women’s sports podcasts coming from the Women’s Sports Audio Network. Along with Williams, additional shows will include hosts like hockey stars Madison Packer and Anya Packer, tennis Grand Slam winner Rennae Stubbs, WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes, golf media personality Tisha Alyn, as well as sports journalist Sarah Spain, who recently launched a daily women’s sports show, Good Game with Sarah Spain. Capital One, e.l.f Cosmetics and e.l.f SKIN have all been announced as sponsors of the Women’s Sports Audio Network’s dedicated women’s sports programming.

“I’m happy to be a part of iHeartRadio’s Women’s Sports Audio Network, because they are putting their money where their mouths are. We talk about daily coverage of women’s sports and investment and it starts with things like this,” said Williams. “This aligns with everything that I’ve been advocating for for so many years.”

The show is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and the iHeartRadio app with new episodes every Wednesday.