INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY — GROWTH IN WOMEN'S SPORT

Working alongside sports teams and federations we’ve noticed that growing popularity and audience numbers translate into fast acting content that's fresh, ever changing and always something new… Last year saw Women’s Sport break broadcasting records and solidify its fanbase - with the Lionesses reaching the World Cup final and drawing in a whopping 12 million viewers. Golf’s Solheim Cup saw Europe retain the trophy and tipped the scales for most watched women's sport event on Pay TV.

Women’s tournaments are now drawing in large audiences, creating opportunities for players, fans and sponsors. Focusing on Football, the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup drew unprecedented attention, with 80% of the general population having awareness of the event - showing a clear interest from growing fan bases, in particularly young audiences. The success of this tournament highlighted the commercial opportunities for both sponsors and athletes themselves, with 1.7 million tickets sold - a record for women’s sport! - alongside substantial TV audiences tuning in to the action.

The release of 'fly on the wall docu-series’ is showing fans a side of their favourite sports they’ve never seen before. Opening the door and allowing camera crews behind the scenes has grown fan bases as this type of content shows professional athletes as people - not just players on a court/ pitch/ field. The release of Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story, is hot off the press following the 2023 WNBA Regular Seasons record shattering viewership figures. They saw a 27% rise in viewers since 2022, with over 36 million viewers across national networks.

Looking at the stats when it comes to audiences for Women’s sport we’re seeing that they are younger - so social media is where they spend a lot of of their time, thus meaning that creating engaging content both on and off the pitch is something that has climbed up the TO-DO list for teams and federations in the build up to an event.

The Paris 2024 Olympics will mark its place in history as the first gender equal Olympics. 50% of the quota places have been distributed to women and the other to men. Seeing true equality at the heart of a global event for the first time is a huge step in the direction for change when it comes to gender inclusion in sport. Focussing on Cycling it was 1984 that saw the first female rider compete in Road Cycling at the games, where Team USA’s Connie Carpenter took gold. Fast forward to today and there are 257 female cyclists competing across all disciplines - this has been a staggered growth from the first time women featured in the games but now see’s 5 cycling disciplines for women to compete in.

The 2022 UEFA Women’s Euros saw England triumph - and this could be considered part of the catalyst for the boom in interest in Women’s football in the UK. Azzuu worked alongside UEFA to build a suite of online assets that were used throughout the tournament - pulling data and displaying fixtures and results to engage fans even between the games.

Women’s sport in Britain has developed significantly in recent years, and we’d just like to take a second to acknowledge some of the many achievements. The Lioness’ winning the Euros and making it to the World Cup final 👏 the Red Roses England Rugby team facing the Black Ferns in the World Cup final 👏. These two huge achievements amongst many others have led to greater attention of women's sport in England, increasing visibility and interest in the sports and making fans, broadcasters and advertisers sit up and pay attention! 

Money talks, there’s no denying it. And when it comes to sport, the multi-billion pound global business that it has become determines everything. The increase in revenue of women’s sport is a demonstration of its overall growth. This year, the global revenue for  elite women's sport is expected to cross the  billion dollar threshold for the first time, that’s a 300% increase compared to just 3 years ago! With Football and Basketball being predicted to be accountable for 71% of the total global revenue - advertisers have taken note. With wider broadcasting opportunities being offered from the likes of CBS, ESPN, Scripps Sports, and Amazon, the markup in spend on sporting events is clear. 

Despite the growing list of positives for womens sport regarding viewership and participation, there are still improvements that could be made. Although 2022 saw viewing figures grow by 131%, women’s sport still accounts for less than a seventh of sports coverage hours on key UK TV channels. Raising awareness on social media and encouraging more fans to view live streams will hopefully lead to more mainstream broadcasters showcasing a variety of women's sports outside the Olympics.

We are living through an exciting time as Women’s sport continues to grow in popularity both on and off the playing field. We expect to see many more records being broken in the next few years - and here at Azzuu are proud to be working with the Women’s teams and federations we currently do to aid them in breaking them.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about what we can do for you at Azzuu, please contact us and request a demo, details can be found here.