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

<div style="font-size:14px;line-height:1;" id="toc">On this page&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#look-at-numbers">Let’s look at numbers</a>&nbsp;<a href="#problems-to-solve">Problems to solve</a>&nbsp;<a href="#new-possibilities">New possibilities</a>&nbsp;<a href="#get-in-touch">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;<hr style="margin-bottom:1vw;">In 2022, we published <a style="background-color:transparent;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://watchers.io/post/how-do-women-watch-sports">an article about women's sports and how difficult it was to find where to watch them</a>. 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?<h2 id="look-at-numbers">Let’s look at numbers</h2>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.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:1354/1420;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/1df1d30f-b0c2-4b53-b4c2-c9fdc1e0af27.png" width="1354" height="1420"><figcaption>Nike continues to celebrate both female and male sports and athletes equally. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>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.The 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…<h2 id="problems-to-solve">Problems to solve</h2>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, broadcast by ESPN, the results of which 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 a programming approach 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 evident in comparison to the Football awards: commentators talked a lot about dresses and looks while female athletes were being 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, while women who look and behave less traditionally are almost invisible in the wider media.<figure class="image" style="margin-bottom:1vw;"><img style="aspect-ratio:1196/1510;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/f956cdb8-c806-475b-bec1-dbb901e79dcf.png" width="1196" height="1510"><figcaption>©Just Women's Sports Instagram account</figcaption></figure>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.<h2 id="new-possibilities">New possibilities</h2>Over the last two years, several promising platforms with female sports content have been launched. Firstly, there is the 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 that broadcasts female sports 24/7.Companies realised that women's sports weren’t as watched as they 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 a safe online space, coverage on traditional media, and wide sponsorship, will not stay with us for long.<h2>Get in touch</h2>If you want to enhance broadcasting with real-time communication, using second screens, live chats, polls, and other community-building tools,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://watchers.io/form">connect with us</a>. We will help you&nbsp;find the most suitable solution.<hr style="margin-bottom:1vw;">Sources:32nd SEA Games - Women's Tournament/ Statistics | <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://escharts.com/tournaments/mobile-legends/32nd-sea-games-womens-tournament">Esports Charts</a>Objectification in Sport Media: Influences on a Future Women’s Sporting Event | <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317240106_Objectification_in_Sport_Media_Influences_on_a_Future_Women%27s_Sporting_Event">International Journal of Sport Communication</a>More U.S. fans paying attention to women's sports, but large gap still exists | <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/10/26/Sports-in-Society/Female-sports.aspx&nbsp;">Sports Business Journal</a>New study: Women's sports comprise 15% of sports media coverage | <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.teamwass.com/news/new-study-womens-sports-comprise-15-of-sports-media-coverage/">Wasserman</a></div>

What ways do platforms choose to engage viewers and to keep their loyalty?

Discover how real-time messaging can increase engagement on your website or app for VOD platforms. Enhance viewer interaction while watching TV series and films, making the experience more engaging

How can we engage viewers during co-watching, and…is this necessary?

How to increase viewer engagement on VOD platforms while watching TV series and films? Or do films and TV shows provide enough entertainment, especially when viewers aren’t watching alone?We've analysed how VOD services and their partners launch watch parties and other entertaining events to determine if the ‘movie plus communication’ mix is compelling or if viewers require more.<h3>Guests, Hosts and Influencers</h3>Guest appearances are the most popular and obvious idea for attracting and entertaining an audience while they are watching movies and TV shows. Almost all group co-viewing solutions assume that the chat room stream has a host who invites participants, manages the viewing process, comments on it, and can generally perform any function within this field, from thanking sponsors to critical comments on what is happening.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:800/450;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/9672ddee-88c0-40c7-9d98-0eabbfccc806.gif" width="800" height="450"></figure>Of course, watching the content with a host or guests originates in TV shows, where experts come on to programs, present films before they start, and discuss them after they finish.Live premieres and screenings in offline cinemas and festivals operate similarly. For example, directors, actors or any other member of the film crew can present the film, and then discuss it with the audience afterwards, answering their questions.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:2936/1378;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/7647a62f-65c9-42cf-b0c7-778a583466a0.png" width="2936" height="1378"><figcaption>Sandman event for Netflix provided by Scener</figcaption></figure>However, the digital watching format offers new opportunities for presentations with guests. For example, a film can be discussed in real time, especially if it is not a premiere, thus turning viewing video content into an open podcast. It offers many options, resulting in a kind of vlog, YouTube analysis mix, or Twitch stream, in addition to some of the more classic genre formats mentioned above.This is the path that Netflix, for example, is following. From time to time, in partnership with the Scener browser extension, the streaming service arranges premieres of major releases. Thus, in August, the&nbsp;<a style="color:inherit;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://thesandman.scener.com/">release</a>&nbsp;of the “Sandman” series went like this: anyone could join in co-viewing, and members of the film crew, as well as Neil Gaiman himself, acted as hosts.<blockquote>Social networks are the main competitors for VoD services. What are they doing? Watching the feeds collected for them, following UG content, communicating and following influencers.</blockquote><blockquote>According to a&nbsp;<a style="color:inherit;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/summary.html">Deloitte report</a>, influencers are what is most important to users all around the global: about 80% of users follow at least one influencer. This means that if an influencer joins a platform, a part of his audience will most likely follow him.</blockquote>HBO Max also held its own premieres with the help of a browser extension. Zack Snyder was one of the brightest hosts of their online Q&amp;A events, and he connected to his “Justice League” premiere.<h3>Additional Content</h3>When are viewers distracted from watching? It’s when they fail to follow a story and lose context. But even this is easy to avoid. People have gotten used to browsing social networks in parallel with their primary activity, even when no need exists. To maintain engagement and make usage of the OTT platform more conscious, capturing the moment when a viewer craves distraction and preventing them from turning to a social network for entertainment or to a browser for more information is essential.Amazon Prime has pioneered this route. They tested X-ray functionality on Kindle books (sending users more information about the books while they were reading) and decided to examine films and TV series more closely.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:1354/902;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/504365ec-c07f-4cc3-95c2-0f5eec177743.png" width="1354" height="902"><figcaption>X-Ray at Prime</figcaption></figure>So, for many Prime Video titles, additional content has been created, tied to certain moments within a film or series. The viewer accesses this content by pressing the player’s pause button during playback. This extra content often includes all the information on the title’s IMDb page (Amazon also owns this movie database).This was a bright, innovative solution suitable for movie lovers, though it was implemented in a rather dull and mundane fashion, and the extra content is too predictable. If you are a cinephile, you're likely already familiar with the wealth of information available on IMDb. If you are a serious movie lover or preparing for a premiere, you've probably already searched for all the details on IMDb. But this innovative idea, which began to be implemented back in 2012 and gradually&nbsp;<a style="font-size:16px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/22/amazon-brings-x-ray-to-web-video/">spread to&nbsp;</a>different devices, is still alive and active, meaning that there are still plenty of X-Ray fans.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:1350/756;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/f8ba50c1-c8c4-4438-8536-de7b8b8c244a.png" width="1350" height="756"><figcaption>Watchers’ Cinephile additional content</figcaption></figure>In addition to keeping users “on platform,”&nbsp;X-Ray helps Amazon create native cross-platform promotions.&nbsp;For example, it sends viewers to Amazon Music for music from a film, to Kindle for books, and to the Amazon marketplace to purchase goods related to the title.However, whereas the content sent by X-Ray is relatively dry, emotionless, and purely informative, the content Cosmopolitan sent to viewers in its joint project with Google was, on the contrary, seemingly too emotional and editorial. In 2019, Cosmopolitan decided to support the release of the second season of the “You” series, which was very popular among the site’s readers. Together with Google News Lab, they&nbsp;<a style="color:inherit;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a30090671/cosmo-google-netflix-you-watch-party-second-screen/">created</a>&nbsp;an in-app page (which can also be accessed via a link in a browser), which was supposed to operate as a second screen on a laptop or TV where the viewer was watching the show. Viewers simultaneously tuned into Netflix and the additional content page, which was followed by messages from Cosmo displayed on a dedicated screen at specific points in the series.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:1346/1030;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/ea8a19c7-3ca9-4840-b3dc-af6040e924b3.png" width="1346" height="1030"><figcaption>Additional content to You, by Cosmo</figcaption></figure>While Google News Lab data lead Simon Rogers&nbsp;<a style="color:inherit;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/26/cosmo-watch-party/">called</a>&nbsp;the experiment a success, not everyone agreed. There was too much content from Cosmo during the browsing process, and this information was often delivered as friendly comments. While this might work with familiar films/series, it provided a distraction as users tried to acquaint themselves with the premiere. In addition, funny gifs flashed between the messages on the second screen, distracting viewers from immersion.Last year, after learning from competitors’ and partners’ mistakes, Netflix&nbsp;<a style="color:inherit;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.bgr.in/news/netflix-to-launch-a-new-n-plus-subscription-for-exclusive-content-know-details-958532/">announced</a>&nbsp;its plan to launch the N-Plus service. This will enable viewers to do many things right within the platform, including creating playlists of any tracks that appear in originals, receiving photos and videos from filming, getting additional content information ‘here and now’ so that they do not have to Google it, and so on.<h3>Animated Reactions</h3>Almost all services that allow viewers to watch content together allow users to send animated emojis: in some cases, they fly into the chat, and in some, they even appear on the TV screen. Users love this interactive format: it’s an easy and quick way to share an experience without formulating a comment or being distracted from viewing for a longer time.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:2294/1404;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/04a702d9-98bd-466a-9cdb-78eaed099e7b.png" width="2294" height="1404"><figcaption>Emojis at Disney+ Group Watch</figcaption></figure>The attractiveness of animated emojis was used completely unexpectedly by Disney Plus for group viewing. There, users can only send emojis during co-viewing, as neither text nor voice chat is available. However, users have many concerns about this format for interaction, the most obvious being how they explain what they are happy or unhappy about. Because of this, they still have to go to instant messengers, so why not send emojis in the messengers, themselves?<h3>Surveys and quizzes</h3>Most services that allow content co-watching use practically no polls or quizzes, or do this in association with sports content. But why? Viewers support their favourite heroes in the same way while watching TV series, as they do their favourite teams while watching sports, and they also like to share their opinions and search for other like-minded viewers. That’s why we at Watchers see the potential of engaging tools for any content, whether award broadcasts, reality shows, film premieres, or familiar classics.What might users ask each other during an old movie? Just about anything! Learn who other viewers see as their favourite character, share a story or a fact, or put something on to play. In addition, engagement tools make it possible to enable the same cross-promotion and native marketing that Amazon does within its own limited ecosystem. Widgets in the co-browsing chat allow users to buy clothes worn by a film character on demand, order an interior similar to the one in that apartment being shown, or fly to Italy to walk around the filming locations.Thus, although engagement tools primarily perform their primary function, involving and increasing ER, they can also be the solution to many additional tasks that a content platform has set for itself.***If you are looking for a way to increase engagement and provide additional content on your website or app, please fill out the form below. We will be happy to help you find the most suitable solution.

Blog with tag: video platforms