With the Women’s Ashes and Wimbledon underway, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup due next week, it promises to be another fantastic summer of entertainment in women’s sport. The interest in these major events signifies that the women’s sports market is already booming. According to the Women’s Sport Trust, the commercial value of women’s sports in the UK could triple in value to £1billion by 2030. While this is undoubtedly good news for women’s sport and connected industries, there is still more that broadcasters can do to drive audience interest and unlock the latent commercial potential of women’s sport.
It is clear that attention is growing, with two-thirds of the population now expressing an interest in at least one women’s sport, as revealed by Nielsen research. This is translating to significant growth in viewership, with average viewing time of women’s sport on TV in the UK more than doubling per person from 2021-22, according to the Women’s Sport Trust. Hot on the heels of this viewership growth, UEFA women’s euros sponsorship value increased from €3.5million in 2017 to €16.5million in 2022. The organisation is setting their sights on €30million worth of sponsorship in 2025.
Despite this momentum, the women’s sports market still has a long way to go from a commercial perspective. Even given the impressive growth in fan interest, when considering media rights, sponsorship and ticket sales, the UK women’s sports market is valued at an estimated £350 million, which only represents 5% of the overall national sports market. Even if the value of women’s sport trebles as anticipated, it will still only account for a maximum of 15% of the total market, as found by analysis from SportsBusiness, ESA and Statista.
This means there is still space for growth, and significant opportunity for the businesses and organisations who can take advantage of this untapped potential. Broadcasters and streaming platforms are an essential component of this ecosystem, as giving fans access to top-tier content is at the heart of growing interest and therefore the commercial value of the sports.
However, recent rights negotiations highlight the massive disparity in value between men’s and women’s sports. In 2021, the FA struck an £8million deal with the BBC and Sky to broadcast the Women’s Super League. In contrast, the men’s Premier League rights were valued at £4.8billion in the same year. This debate came to the fore in recent months, with FIFA threatening a Women’s World Cup “broadcast blackout” in Europe as they felt they were being provided with insufficient rights offers. A deal was struck between FIFA, the BBC and ITV to air the rights in June, just five weeks prior to the tournament.
This represents something of a ‘chicken and egg’ situation for broadcasters when it comes to women’s sport. Some broadcasters may not wish to invest much in women’s sports rights, or show women’s sports at all, as they expect these would attract lower viewership, generate low returns on their investment, or adversely affect their ratings. But, broadcast deals are a critical catalyst to enable women’s sport to gain a following, drive up viewership, and ultimately create value.
Broadcasters and streaming platforms need to break this cycle and recognise the trajectory of rapidly growing interest and engagement. This needs to translate into a willingness to invest in rights, marketing and production over a sustained period to grow the audience and fan base.
Once the rights are secured, broadcasters can deploy a number of strategies to help grow the fan base, increase engagement, and ultimately grow the value of women’s sports:
- Programme the sports prominently: Give them prime time slots, ideally not behind a paywall, and make sure they’re featured in news, publications and ad breaks.
- Accompany them with shoulder content: News, documentaries and behind the scenes content build interest.
- Create a buzz through marketing: Accompany the content with ancillary marketing campaigns to build momentum.
- Support athletes’ promotional activity: Fans, particularly younger ones, increasingly look to engage with individual athletes as ‘brands’. Working with the sportswomen’s talent agents to get them in front of the fans – whether in programming or on social channels –– is key.
- Commit long-term: It takes years to build a franchise. Long-term commitment enables broadcasters to lock in sponsors to unlock investment in the sport.
Tennis is a good example of where women’s sport can go with concerted effort behind it. Take the US Open – last year, the women’s final attracted 2.4 million viewers, compared with 2.1 million for the men’s final. This is the fifth time in the last seven years the women’s final outperformed their male counterparts. Where engagement is at parity, commercial value can reach parity, too – the WTA and ATP generate equal sponsorship revenue, at approximately $30 million, according to Nielsen research.
Getting these strategies right is a win-win for broadcasters. It will enable them to close the value gap between men and women’s sports, and position them as the beneficiaries of the commercial potential that will be unleashed. Those that invest early will reap the rewards.