Last year, during our 2021 Showcase event, Foxtel Media made a bold challenge to our advertising partners: invest more in women’s sport. It caused a ripple through the industry and sparked many conversations about women’s sport sponsorship in the weeks after the Showcase.

The good news is that the industry has taken up our challenge. Last weekend the Suncorp Super Netball partnership kicked off, with a host of high-profile advertising partners backing the tournament including Suncorp, Nissan, Woolworths, Origin Energy, Chemist Warehouse, HCF, Telstra, Harvey Norman and ASICS.

Despite this brilliant progress, we are still a long way from the parity that women’s sports deserve when we come to advertising dollars. Here are three myths about women’s sport that are holding back brands from the huge opportunity that it represents.

Myth 1: Viewers don’t want to watch women’s sport

While women’s sport audience numbers might be lower than that of men’s sport, the figures are steadily climbing. While women’s sport numbers maybe smaller when compared to that of men’s sports audiences, it is important to remember that men’s sport has had a much greater head start.

We are only now emerging into an era where great Australian athletes can have a viable career in women’s codes. While the average Super Netball salary is now $74,000, the majority of Women's National Cricket League players receive an average salary of just $40,829. Salaries are no doubt on an upwards trajectory that will be reflected in the talent that we see on our screens, and the numbers that tune into watch them. Their audience will continue to grow and brands needs to stay ahead of the curve, not follow the herd.

Research by True North reflects this growth in demand, finding that one in two sports followers wants to see more women’s sport on TV.

A survey carried out by Foxtel and YouGov found that seven in ten (69 per cent) people said their viewership of women's sport on TV has increased since 2020. Over half (56 per cent) of these attributed it to growing media coverage around sporting events and female sport stars. And for Millennials in particular, the direct access to female sports stars and women’s team through social media has driving increased viewing of women’s sports.

Myth 2: Only women watch women’s sports

The viewers of women’s sport on TV are not necessarily whom marketers might assume them to be. Recent research from Foxtel and YouGo made some interesting findings, including that men (72 per cent) are actually more likely than women (61 per cent) to say they have watched women’s sports on TV, with men being most likely to watch all women’s sports shown. Men also report watching more women’s sport than women (2.39 hours per week compared to 1.93 hours).

In total, two thirds (66 per cent) of Australian adults (approximately 13 million people), have tuned in to watch women's sport on TV. The most popular sport is tennis (44 per cent), followed by cricket (24 per cent), athletics (22 per cent), Australian Rules football (AFL – 21 per cent) and netball (21 per cent). People living in metro areas are also more likely to watch women’s sport on TV than those in regional areas.

When the AFLW announced last year that their season would change so it did not overlap with the men’s season, a major driver was understanding that their audience for both AFL and AFLW are male and female and largely the same sports-loving fans. When brands operate under the assumption that these sports only target women, they limit their scope and halve their commercial potential before they even begin.

Myth 3: The investment gap between women’s and men’s sport isn’t that big

The disparity in advertising devoted to women’s and men’s sport is vast. On Foxtel platforms, women’s sport investment is only 1.6 per cent of men’s sport investment. Audience levels alone do not justify this discrepancy:

• The WBBL advertising investment was 8 per cent to that of the BBL investment this year, even though the audience was 17 per cent of the men’s.
• The Women’s Ashes advertising spend was 3 per cent of the total men’s Ashes spend in the 2021/22 season, even though the audience was 14 per cent of the men’s.  

Our YouGov research discovered that six in ten (59 per cent) of people agree that brands should invest more in women’s sport, with 42 per cent reporting that brand sponsorship of women’s sport improves their brand association. Nearly a third (32 per cent) are more likely to consider buying from a brand that sponsors women’s sport.

This is echoed by the True North study, which found that women’s teams drive a more positive reaction and stronger emotional connection to brands than men’s teams (54 per cent vs 41 per cent). Additionally, 26 per cent of people aware of the sponsor of a women’s team consider or use the sponsor, compared to just 19 per cent for men’s team sponsors.

Deep, rich, powerful campaign opportunities

Women’s sport offers opportunities for deep emotional engagement with viewers. As well as the actual sports events, people are interested in the athletes themselves and their success stories, and this can create exceptionally compelling campaign content. Nearly half (47 per cent) of Australians, approximately 9.3 million adults, agree that women in sport (including sportswomen and commentators) inspire them, and this is particularly strong among younger demographics.

This opens up a plethora of unique, impactful advertising opportunities for clients that Foxtel Media facilitates. Foxtel recently teamed up with women’s netball naming rights sponsor, Suncorp to create the My Support Team content series. The series takes star netballers on a trip down memory lane, joined by a special supporter who has motivated and encouraged them throughout their life. The series celebrates the untold stories of an athlete’s support team and the sacrifices they have made for the athlete’s benefit.

The campaign highlights the importance of supporting female athletes to stay in sport in their teenage years and throughout their lives, a key platform for the Suncorp Team Girls program. In this way the content series evolves beyond advertising, delivering a powerful message and adding depth and backstory for viewers.

Women’s sport still holds huge potential, but we have only scratched the surface of what it would be, and advertisers and audiences are losing out as a result. At Foxtel Media we are hopeful that we will eventually see gender parity in sports investment, and that more of our advertising partners will join us in the journey.