Research Report: Say Yes to Success – the commercial benefits of partnership with professional women’s sports

Key findings

The results from October 2013 provide a striking picture.

• Men’s sport still accounts for the vast majority of sports coverage across all media outlets. Women’s sport accounted for just 7% of the sport that we read about, watched or listened to in October 2013.
• Women’s sports fared best on TV with just over 10% of sports coverage (mainly thanks to coverage of women’s tennis).
• In national newspapers, women’s sports received just 2% of the coverage.
• Radio coverage of women’s sport amounted to 5% of the total.
• And online, just 4% of coverage concerned women’s sports.

Recommendations

• Key stakeholders, such as media companies, commercial partners and competition organisers need to work together to develop a regular calendar of high quality events and competitions.
• Greater clarity about the characteristics and commercial benefits of successful women’s sport events and competitions should be established.
• Women’s events and competitions must be developed in a way that encourages fans to engage and connect with them.