Media Coverage For Women’s Sports Has Nearly Tripled In Five Years, According To New Research

Media coverage of women’s sports has nearly tripled, according to a recent report by Wasserman. The average share of sports media coverage across broadcasts, streaming, social media, and digital publications has risen to 15% for 2022, based on their report. In contrast, previous longitudinal insights have reported coverage averages landing at only 5.7% for the popular sports news show ESPN’s SportsCenter, and at 5.1% for TV news through 2019.

“We really set out to uncover the true percentage of coverage that women’s sports receives, understanding that the definition of coverage has changed with the advent and proliferation of digital and social media as well as streaming,” Thayer Lavielle, Executive Vice President of The Collective, the Women’s Division of Wasserman said in the report.

Key Findings

Overall, the report indicated impressive coverage trends for women’s sports across new and emerging media platforms such as streaming and social media. As younger generations of fans are turning to streaming platforms such as ESPN+, Peacock, Amazon Prime, and Paramount+ at high rates, the roughly 22,000 hours of women’s sports coverage provided across a variety of streaming platforms in 2022 is very encouraging.

Several additional key findings from the Wasserman Report, “From the Shadows to the Spotlight,” are highlighted:

• Women’s sports received an average share of 15% of media coverage in 2022.
• If coverage trends continue at this current rate of growth, women’s share of coverage should be close to 20% by 2025.
• Millennials represent roughly 30% of all sports fans - and 46% of this population turns to streaming platforms to watch sports events.
• As expected, women’s sports digital publication mentions and social media mentions both peaked during high-profile events such as the Olympics, FIFA Women’s World Cup, and March Madness.
• Women’s collegiate and professional sports combined for a total of 22,065 hours of streamed coverage in 2022, a 5,124 hours increase from 2021.
• Women’s basketball led the way in total linear TV coverage hours at 2,055, followed by soccer (1,835 hours), tennis (1,810 hours), softball (1,392 hours), and volleyball (1,001 hours).

Not All Coverage Is Created Equal

While the increased coverage is a huge step forward for the continued visibility and growth of women’s sports, these events continue to remain underrepresented across major media platforms. A lack of consistent coverage has continued to place a strong emphasis on individual players, teams, and leagues being able to generate organic interest and increased fandom. Further, coverage is not always created equal.

As noted in the Wasserman report, and across a variety of previous studies, women athletes tend to experience coverage that is not produced or marketed at the same standards as men. For the second straight year, ESPN has announced it will not be placing the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game in a primetime slot, instead opting for Sunday, April 7 at 3 p.m. EST. This decision by ESPN is surprising given the enormous success of the 2023 championship game. It averaged nearly 10 million viewers.

In addition, when women do receive coverage, previous research has uncovered high rates of objectification of women athletes and teams, with broadcasts utilizing fewer camera angles and commentators reflecting on the appearance, parental figures, and/or spouse/family involvement of women athletes rather than strictly on their athleticism and in-game play. Beyond these inequities, the peaks and valleys of media coverage undoubtedly generate viewership inconsistency, with major women’s events being broadcast much more frequently than regular season contests throughout a given season of play.

Based on this recent report, however, optimism towards the trajectory of women’s sports coverage is warranted. As fandom continues to increase across collegiate and professional women’s sports, and with streaming and social media outlets growing in popularity, it is not farfetched to assume the projected coverage share averages will reach 20% across media platforms by 2025.