Let's look at female sports coverage, and what records and problems are observed in the industry.

What is going on with the coverage of female sports, what new platforms appeared in 2023 for women's sports broadcasting, and what problems in the industry are still waiting to be solved

Anatomy of a rise: What’s going on with female sports broadcasting

In 2022, we published <a href="https://watchers.io/post/how_do_women_watch_sports" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent;">an article </a>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 numbersWasserman’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.<img src="https://watchersweb-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/9b2e9d98-5665-4402-8448-381ae82de55a.png">Nike continues to celebrate both female and male sports and athletes equally.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 solveHowever, 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.<img src="https://watchersweb-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/d0027f6b-00ef-4217-95b1-927cf51a987a.png">©Just Women's Sports Instagram accountNational 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 possibilitiesOver 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.___Sources:<a href="https://escharts.com/tournaments/mobile-legends/32nd-sea-games-womens-tournament" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://escharts.com/tournaments/mobile-legends/32nd-sea-games-womens-tournament</a><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lindsey-Darvin/publication/317240106_Objectification_in_Sport_Media_Influences_on_a_Future_Women%27s_Sporting_Event/links/592f46c60f7e9beee75dbd5a/Objectification-in-Sport-Media-Influences-on-a-Future-Womens-Sporting-Event.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lindsey-Darvin/publication/317240106_Objectification_in_Sport_Media_Influences_on_a_Future_Women%27s_Sporting_Event/links/592f46c60f7e9beee75dbd5a/Objectification-in-Sport-Media-Influences-on-a-Future-Womens-Sporting-Event.pdf</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/10/26/Sports-in-Society/Female-sports.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/10/26/Sports-in-Society/Female-sports.aspx</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teamwass.com/news/new-study-womens-sports-comprise-15-of-sports-media-coverage/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://www.teamwass.com/news/new-study-womens-sports-comprise-15-of-sports-media-coverage/</a>

What is the favourite feature of almost all crypto traders? A copy, or mirror, trading tool allows traders to share their deals and strategies and copy each other’s trading methods.

How do mirror trading work, why is it so popular, and how to integrated such tools as chats and copy-trading widget to your platform.

Source of financial news, sense of community and lessons from experts: what are the peculiarities of social trading

Let’s see how it works, why it is so popular, and what peculiarities this strategy has.<h3>How does it work</h3>Social trading platforms usually include three additional tools: a chat for discussions, copy widgets for sharing and mirroring deals and methods, and a leaderboard based on popularity, success rate, and followers. So, if the user is an expert, they will be on the leaderboard, have a badge with an expert mark, and share their actions through these widgets. Other users will find experts on the leaderboard and will copy their actions. But, of course, the flow is not strict. Experts can also copy other experts’ deals, or activities made by regular users, if they look suitable and promising. Regular or novice users can share their deals to discuss the ideas with the community and correct plans and strategies if they decide it's needed. So, mirroring trading allows users to stay updated and check with the community if they do everything right or need to reconfigure their strategy.<h3>Pro and contra</h3>It doesn’t prevent users from lossesDue to social trading, users adopt different strategies created by other people. This helps users save time but should be customized anyway because different traders have different needs, goals, and financial opportunities.&nbsp;It gives traders much helpful informationMany traders prefer social trading platforms because they gain access to market updates. Such information comes not from nowhere but from particular people who prove their insights with concrete actions shared via the copy widget. So, chats with copy tools become social media for traders, where communities are forming, and users engage deeper and can trust each other more. Still, compared to social media, they stay more protected because they can communicate only in public chats and cannot provide any sensitive or private information that can be used for fraud.&nbsp;Not only news and updates but theorySocial trading tools can help users save time and learn a theory directly from industry experts. Instead of spending hours trying to understand the material, you could gain experience by doing it and putting it into practice by asking questions and seeing real strategies applied for real deals. Also, the platform can provide audio and video streams in such trading chats. Users get into online events like workshops about trading while surfing your platform and making deals.High-risk techniques and straightforwardnessFirstly, novices can copy high-risk strategies without realizing it. It is an obvious risk, but newbies should remember that trading generally applies to risk, and neither somebody’s strategies nor their own can be one hundred per cent successful; there are no guarantees in trading. So, it’s better to start mirroring straightforward strategies and don’t hesitate to ask some advice and questions in a chat.<h3>Numbers</h3>Copy trading is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored, so metrics and numbers of users of this tool have been published regularly by particular social trading platforms and by traders in general.&nbsp;According to the Insight Partners report, the social trading industry is growing 7.8% annually, and it will achieve a market volume of $3.77 billion by 2028.According to Market Forecast, the global social trading market will reach over $12 billion in 2028, growing at a CAGR of 64.7% during the forecast period.On average, traders who profit from copy trading features follow more than seven trading experts. The top user of copy trading tools follows 27 expert traders, with total profits of over 140K USD.<h3>Trends</h3>So, it’s pretty predictable that Gen Zers who are interested in trading and crypto trading are permanent users of social and copy trading tools. According to different reports of significant copy-trading platforms, the age group of users are 50-55% of all active consumers of the feature (curious is that the second big group of users who consume copy-trading more often is people older than 55 because they seek trading advice, and copy tools and social chats are convenient place to reach them).&nbsp;The Fidelity Investments Investor Insights Study, conducted in 2022, showed that more than 55% of Gen Zers and Millennials turned to social media influencers for investment advice. A 2021 <a href="https://www.fool.com/research/gen-z-millennial-investors-tools/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(74, 110, 224);">survey conducted by the Fool</a> revealed that more than 90% of Gen Zers named social media a main source of investing and financial information.These tendencies were applied by spreading social aspects of all digital services Gen Zers and other youngsters use. Social tools have become a required part of using any service and platform, and if a young person trades, they want to have a strong connection with other users. For trading and finances, this trend is raised due to investment, trading, and crypto threads on Reddit and other similar platforms, where communities engage in conversations on trading activities.***Watchers provides easily integrated tools for crypto- and stock social trading, such as public chats, copy-and-share widgets, and audio streams. Please contact us through the website's form to get more information or start a free trial.

Ways to achieve platform metrics growth through audio formats. 

Integrated in-app chats can contain audio that allows you to provide internal events for engagement growth and users attraction. Just imagine: people communicate with athletes while using your app. That's why they will return to your app again.

How to make the branded podcast actually work for the brand?

When you develop and promote a product and want to make it a love brand for the audience, you use all available tools or at least find the most workable and potentially suitable for your particular area. Social media and podcast platforms look promising for all directions and all products, especially for content platforms.​​Content platforms provide content for users; content is always a topic to talk about, so brands talk through Facebook, TikTok or podcast episodes about content and interaction with it. Often, they reach an audience for such conversations. But here, the platforms face a challenge: they find the audience on a social media platform or see that their podcast is listened to on Spotify by a significant number of people, but what should they do with all of them? How do transfer them to the main brand? These people are here to perceive such content as podcasts; all podcasts are already gathered here for them.Also, brands can face an even weirder situation: their customers use the main platform but quit going to Spotify or Apple Podcasts to listen to a new episode. So, their loyalty is wasted on increasing other platforms’ metrics.Why?&nbsp;<blockquote>Of the 1.3 million podcasts Pacific Content analysed, about 850,000 of them had no ratings. According to a CoHost report, B2C branded podcasts can be top-rated but don’t perform well.The most popular formats for branded podcasts are interview, discussion, or hybrid format, which are around 60-65%. The average length is 20-30 minutes.</blockquote>We see the solution in internal audio streams that don’t refuse the idea of podcast platforms but develop it and move it to the next level.Let’s look at potential mechanics for two options: if you already have a podcast or if you just think about it.1.You have a podcastIf you are producing a podcast and its audiences look forward to new episodes, they for sure will be interested in participating in the open recording of an episode: that means listeners can join the recording, ask questions in real-time, and then, if they missed this open-record event they can listen to a regular version afterwards. Usually, these open-record events are provided offline, and because of that, it causes enormous costs and little value. However, there is a possibility to deliver it on your platform online.Invite users who like your platform and listeners who love your podcast to the open record online event. All guests and listeners must be authorised on your platform to participate. They listen to the audio event in real time, comment on it, ask questions and get answers at once. So, that provides live communication between the brand and users and allows them to create discussions together. Thus, you as a brand get an advantage as time spent on the platform, a high level of user engagement and interaction and unique content that is produced directly on your platform. Then you can just keep spreading the record to all podcast platforms as a regular episode, but it gave you profit already — during the recording. And you can produce all episodes like that. Also, you can provide special audio meetings on the platform with special guests weekly or monthly and send them to the podcast platforms, not all episodes. So, listeners who become fans of your show should go to your main platform to have access to all episodes and participate in them more actively and intensely.2.You don’t have a podcast yet but plan to startPodcasts are great but a tricky tool. We all know excellent examples of podcasts. However, millions of podcasts are just drawing on audio platforms. According to reports, over 60% of branded podcasts have no rates or reviews. You can answer that there is the same situation with social media, but they are not perfectly the same because, on social media, you can promote your page and promote each post to reach an audience and engage it. You can do it at the start to attract first users and then to grow your base and interest due to high-quality content; you can promote posts occasionally to feed your subscription base or promote them permanently to be sure that your content always gets enough attention. You cannot do such a thing with podcasts because only external promotion tools exist for them. So, you should produce outstanding content, hope to reach the audience organically, and just wait if it gives you any profit. Often, brands run podcasts and have no idea what to do with them or how to get value for spent resources. Integrated tools for audio events allow starting with the value.You can produce the recording of the podcast on your platform. It’s natural if the main topic of it is connected with the content you provide on a platform or with the user experience or any other area of consumption. Then, you can use this record on the podcast platforms as a regular episode. The difference will be that some of your users already participated in creating this episode, sending you questions and comments.After listening to this episode on regular platforms, when Spotify or Apple podcast users would like to communicate with hosts or guests, they will be able to do it easily by joining the record of the next episode.&nbsp;So far, it can look really challenging: How do you produce podcast content on video, betting, trading, or educational platforms? But there are no challenges at all in this. You can add an easy-integrated community chat with audio to the platform.How does it work?You choose a space for such an activity on your platform, website and app. Where will the button be located? Where will your users check the schedule of audio streams? Where will you gather recorded episodes? There are answers you should answer before the integration (It’s only about the product and UX side, but of course, you should think about the content, too).When you locate all the elements and ensure they work for your users, you can inform them about the opportunity to talk and participate in such an event. Users participate in the event simultaneously and listen to the stream, asking questions and commenting on a chat. You also can allow users to say something. Participating users listen to the stream directly on your platform. You can provide votes, polls, quizzes or other activities in a chat. Users also can communicate with each other. So, it is a direct way to stay with them in a strong connection, to transfer brand values or just news and make this format work for your metrics and the growth of your business.What else?<ul><li>Invite influencers, and they will lead their audience to your platform</li><li>Provide competitions and stimulate users to be even closer to the brand</li><li>Make these streams regular and build the users’ habit of joining them</li></ul>﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Do you want to learn more or have any ideas on how to create content on the perimeter of your content platform and need some help to implement it? Please fill out the form below and meet with us.

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