Surge in Australian viewers tuning into women’s sport

An increasing number of Australians are tuning into female sports as the popularity of various codes continues to boom.

Fox Cricket’s Kath Loughnan says there has been a huge boom in TV audiences for women’s sport. Picture: Mark Stewart

For so long it was a media afterthought, but women’s sport is now watched by more Australians than any time before.

The introduction of sporting codes including AFLW, NRLW and WBBL in the past decade has helped bolster viewership, and new figures show two out of three Australians have watched televised women’s sport in the past year.

The YouGov research, commissioned by Foxtel, surveyed more than 3000 Australians and found that in the past 12 months, 66 per cent have tuned into women’s sport, while 56 per cent of respondents said they were watching more women’s sport due to increased coverage.

With the Super Netball series set to air on Foxtel this month and the ICC Women’s World Cup under way, the company’s chief commercial and content officer Amanda Laing said the sheer volume of televised women’s sport on offer has led to a boost in viewership across the various female sporting codes.

“What we are seeing here is the evolution of sports fans watching more sport, and in this case it happens to be women’s sport,” she said.

“When you grow that prominence it means more people are watching it, which grows the sponsorship dollars for that sport, which grows the popularity of the sport, which grows the attendances for the sport.”

The 2020 women’s cricket World Cup final at the MCG, which saw Australia defeat India, remains Foxtel’s highest rating female sport event in its history, drawing a broadcast audience of 450,000.

AFLW audiences are also increasing, last year climbing 19 per cent compared to 2019.

Perth-born Fox Sports presenter Kath Loughnan, 28, who specialises in AFL and cricket commentary, said she has seen a huge boom in TV audiences for women’s sport, and noted an increasing percentage of the viewers are men.

Of the 66 per cent of the survey’s respondents who said they had watched women’s sport in the past year, almost three quarters were men.

“We are not forcing men to watch women’s sport, they are choosing to,” she said.

“I’m all for the sisterhood but I’m also all for acknowledging the great role men play in growing women’s sport, whether it be male coaches, administrators, broadcasters, because men make up two-thirds of the audiences watching AFLW, NRLW and WBBL on Fox Sports.”

Loughnan said when she started her career she never thought she would go on to cover so much women’s sport, but she concedes it still has got a fair way to go to gain as much interest as men’s sport.

“We don’t want to force people to watch women’s sport, you want to encourage them to get behind women’s sport because it is way behind men’s sport, we all know that and there’s still ground to make up,” she said.

Foxtel recently unveiled a new five-year broadcast and digital rights deal to spearhead the nation’s netball coverage as part of the company’s strategy to secure more “tier one” sports.

Fox Sports executive director Steve Crawley said the improving quality of women’s sport also meant it “earns its own way”.

“It’s not a case of gender, it’s a case of quality,” he said.

Latest figures show there are 4.08 million Foxtel subscribers, with 1.03 million subscribers tuning into sports streaming service Kayo.

Originally published as Surge in Australian viewers tuning into women’s sport