Anatomy of a rise: What’s going on with female sports broadcasting
Let’s look at female sports coverage, and what records and problems are observed in the industry.
In 2022, we published the article about female sports and how difficult it was to find where to watch it. Two years have passed, and now we can say that female sports broadcasting has broken records.
What particular tournaments are the most popular? What platforms cover these games? Is it really so easy now to watch female sports, or are many problems still waiting for a solution?
Let’s look at several numbers
Wasserman’s report shared that traditionally, before 2019, women’s sports coverage contained not more than 3–5%. In 2019, it increased by 5%. However, the full analysis of 2022 showed a threefold increase, so coverage of female sports through media (including linear TV, video streaming, and social media) was 15% and continued to grow. But we should remember that there were no significant changes in linear TV coverage, and this common growth was provided by streaming platforms and social media that are more flexible to trends than solid and clumsy traditional television.
In the USA, women’s basketball is the best-covered female sport, followed by football, tennis, and softball.
Women’s college volleyball also received huge numbers. The match was streamed on Fox and attracted 1.66 million viewers.
The Women’s European Football Championship final gathered more than 450 million interactions on social media worldwide and the highest viewing figures on television In Germany in 2022.
In 2023, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, broadcast by ESPN, attracted nearly 10 million viewers per game.
In 2023, Women’s esports tournaments received 28 million hours of viewing, 15% more than a year earlier. Online viewing peaks showed wild growth, increasing from 392.4K to 1.37M viewers. These numbers were set at the final of the 32nd SEA Games Women’s Tournament for Mobile Legends, where Bang Bang, Indonesian, and Philippine teams competed.
National Research Group and Ampere Analysis report said that 39% of Gen Zers watch more female sports than they used to.
We provided just examples. You can check reports for the last two years and find booms in the popularity of female sports. Interest in them is growing, which influences offers, and the whole industry is starting to bloom. However…
Problems to solve
However, coverage and an enormous amount of hours don’t mean equality because when male tournaments get prime time slots , female games often go to daytime or nighttime if we talk about linear TV. Sometimes, it turns up with wins, as in the situation with the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, broadcasted by ESPN, which results we shared above. ESPN refused to give primetime for this tournament, and the daytime slot on Sundays became extremely watchable with enormous numbers of viewers. However, such an approach to programming can create a boundary between games and viewers.
Female sports receive more coverage but not less objectification and sexism directed at women athletes. How does it come out? Through commenting about dresses, spouses, appearances, and chosen camera angles. This attitude was obvious in comparison to Football awards: commentators talked a lot about dresses and looks while female athletes were awarded and about sports and competitions while men were on the scene.
Also, female athletes are not so visible in sports media despite their huge success. Of course, significant brands partner with athletes, and you can find some of them in ads. They develop their personal brands on social media, but on the one hand, their presence on visible media is much less than that of male athletes. On the other hand, even those athletes who are presented mostly belong to what are called classic feminine athletes, when women who look and behave less traditionally are almost invisible on wide media.
National Research Group and Ampere Analysis found that broadcast networks in the USA spent 0.2% of media-rights budgets on female-only sports events, which returns us to the previous problem. Traditional media, even if they broadcast and cover female tournaments, are still not fully ready to invest in their development and promotion as they do with male sports.
New possibilities
Over the last two years, several promising platforms with female sports content have been launched. Firstly, there is Women’s Sports Network, the first-ever video platform focusing on female athletes. It offers 24/7 streaming of programming, competitions, documentaries, and other content covering female sports. What’s important is that it is available for free on such services as Freevee by Amazon, Tubi by Fox, FuboTV, and different Smart TVs.
The women’s European Championship final in Germany was watched by more people than the men’s national team matches during the World Cup in Qatar, highlighted Haruka Gruber, Senior Vice President Media DACH at sports streaming channel DAZN, when DAZN launched DAZN Rise, a free platform broadcasts female sports 24/7.
Companies realized that women’s sports weren’t as watched as could be, not because of the lack of interest but because of the absence of opportunities. So, if one of the main problems is going to be solved, maybe others, such as safe online space, coverage on traditional media, and wide sponsorship, will stay with us not so long.
If you want to enhance broadcating with real-time communication, using second-screen, live chats, polls, and other community-building tools, connect with us. We will help you to find the most suitable solution.
Sources:
https://escharts.com/tournaments/mobile-legends/32nd-sea-games-womens-tournament
https://watchers.io/post/how-do-women-watch-sports
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/10/26/Sports-in-Society/Female-sports.aspx
https://www.teamwass.com/news/new-study-womens-sports-comprise-15-of-sports-media-coverage/
