Carol Stiff is an American women’s basketball executive, as well as vice president of programming and acquisitions at ESPN and president of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s board of directors. 

Over her 30 years at ESPN, she was interested in the investment of a women-based sports network that would provide a 24/7 TV channel dedicated to covering female athletes. Today, Stiff sits on the advisory board for the newly unveiled Women’s Sports Network.

Sports Promedia claims that, “After decades of competing for premium airtime with better-resourced men’s properties, the idea is simple: that female athletes now have a platform that is exclusively for them.” 

The network was first announced back in February by Los Angeles-based Fast Studios. Fast Studios was originally founded in 2020 by long-time ad executive Stuart McLean with a focus on ad-supported streaming television services. This network was specifically created to focus on female athletes, as well as provide 24/7 streaming of original programming, competitions, documentaries and a daily studio show “Game On.” The Women’s Sports Network has partnered with multiple associations such as the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), Ladies Professional Golf Association, U.S. Ski and Snowboard and World Surf League and others to make this platform possible. The network plans to start broadcasting games starting in January.

According to Sports Promedia “[Fast Studios] will take confidence from the fact that advertising dollars have been trickling into women’s sports in recent years, with the WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the U.S. seeing an uptick in investment across the board.” This is true, as women’s sports have seen substantial growth in viewership numbers. CNBC reported that, “The WNBA postseason saw a 22% increase in viewership year over year.”  Additionally, a study conducted by the National Research Group and Ampere Analysis found that “39% of Gen-Zers are watching more women’s sports than they were a year ago, along with 29% of millennials.”

Despite the fact that women’s sports viewers are on the rise, the study found that obstacles to equal sports coverage remain high and, “79% of U.S. sports fans still claim to not actively follow women’s sports. Meanwhile, 74% of fans cannot name a single corporate sponsor of any major women’s league.” 

Stiff’s goal while standing as a representative in this network is to to create a platform where young girls can consistently see  female athletes, rather than the male athletes who have traditionally received around-the-clock coverage from mainstream television networks. In Stiff’s view, the Women’s Sports Network is the next  step towards achieving that.