58% of UK women’s sports fans want more non-live content, says study- SportsPro

Despite record-breaking TV viewing figures for women’s sport in 2023, UK women’s sports fans feel underserved by the available content, according to a study from the Women’s Sport Trust (WST).

Confirmed:

• There are currently six million committed fans of at least one women’s sport in the UK, with just three per cent (around 180,000) being committed fans of only women’s sport
• In contrast, the study found there are 16 million committed fans for at least one men’s sport
• Committed fans of women’s sport consume on average two hours less per week than committed fans of men’s sport
• Most of the content that committed fans consume is live – 62 per cent for committed women’s fans and 67 per cent for committed men’s fans
• 58 per cent of committed women’s sports fans want more non-live women’s sport content available
• 47 per cent find it difficult to find non-live women’s sports content
• 52 per cent of committed women’s sports fans feel enough notifications are available to follow women’s sport, compared to 69 per cent of men’s sports fans
• 68 per cent of committed women’s sports fans want greater innovation in women’s sports broadcast coverage
• 54 per cent of committed women’s sports fans agree they would be more likely to watch a women’s live game “if I am interested in the rivalries that have been built up between teams and players before a match”
• 82 per cent of committed women’s sports fans recognise the need for women’s sport to be on free-to-air (FTA) TV
• 61 per cent of committed women’s sports fans would like to see a dedicated women’s sports channel
• 40 per cent of this committed women’s sports fanbase claim they would pay a small subscription fee to access a dedicated women’s sports only channel, with a UK£7 (US$9) per month fee considered a fair and reasonable price

Context:

The non-live women’s sports content fans were found to be most interested in were highlights packages, player skills and tactical analysis, according to the study. The research comes after the WST reported record visibility figures for women’s sport in the first five months of 2023, with 22 million people watching at least three minutes of women’s sport coverage between 1st January and 31st May, which was a 400,000 increase on the previous year.

Comment:

“While women’s sport continues to demonstrate significant growth, both existing and new fans of women’s sport need to be better served by rights holders, broadcasters and sponsors providing the content formats they most want to consume and making them easier to access,” said Tammy Parlour, chief executive and co-founder of the Women’s Sport Trust.

“Just as broadcasters such as BBC and Sky have made live women’s sport easier to access on TV and been rewarded with record-breaking viewing figures this year, we need to ensure that a greater range of digital experiences are available to fans to satisfy growing audience interest. This will help ensure we build greater habit with domestic leagues and competitions and create opportunities to monetise this growing and commercially valuable fanbase.”

Coming next:

The study was released to mark the launch of a partnership between the WST and The R&A ahead of this year’s Women’s Open golf major, which takes place from 9th to 13th August.