The Women’s Sports Network, launched this past month by FAST studios, is a huge step towards gender equality in sports media representation. The network is available 24/7 on platforms such as Amazon Freevee, FuboTV, Sports.tv, Tubi, and XUMO. Partners of the network include the Women’s National Basketball Association, Golf Association, and the World Surf League, to name a few. The network advisors are a mix of prominent female athletes and influential business women; former ESPN executive Carol Stiff, Olympian and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab Angela Ruggiero, and recently retired Olympic medalist Allyson Felix are just three of the nine advisors. CEO of FAST Studios Stuart McLean stated in an interview with Forbes ahead of the network launch that, “We’ve been listening to athletes, fans and our incredible partners, and we know there is a tremendous need for a network that is committed to women’s sports coverage, storytelling, and content.”
Our society is rife with gender inequality. “Sports mirror society, the problems you see in society are the problems you see in sports,” explains Grant Farr, former professor of sociology at Portland State University (PSU), who developed and taught a Sports in Society course. We can level the playing field, especially in regard to pay equity, by increasing media representation. “The interest in women’s sports is there but people won’t evolve into die-hard fans of women’s sports teams until you cover them.”
Mainstream media platforms have been and continue to be reluctant to feature women’s sports. In 2019, coverage of women athletes on televised news and highlight shows, including ESPN’s SportsCenter, totaled only 5.4% of all airtime according to a study on representation of women’s sports in the media conducted by Cheryl Cooky, professor of interdisciplinary studies at Purdue University, and Michael Messner, professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California. The study also found that when women are given airtime, the coverage is lower in technical quality and production value when compared with coverage of men’s sports. Even when social and digital media are taken into account, women athletes remain vastly underrepresented.
Although the percentage of airtime given to women’s sports hasn’t budged, there has been exponential growth in engagement in women’s sports. When the NWSL League Championship between the Portland Thorns and the Kansas City Current (October, 29, 2022) was broadcasted on Primetime, it averaged close to 1 million viewers. This game became the most-watched NWSL match in the League’s 10 year history, up by more than 70% from last year’s NWSL Championship Game. This shows that when given the platform, the viewership of women’s sports will increase.
Having a media network dedicated to only women’s sports is a game changer. Syd Schultz, PSU Women’s Basketball player, said, “This network will make women’s sports more accessible and in doing so expand the fan base for women’s sports.” She added, “Women’s sports are just as exciting and fun to watch as men’s sports, we just need to show people what female athletes can do.”
