Women’s sports in UK registers record viewership in 2023, study says

Research published by the Women’s Sport Trust showed that, in Britain, 46.7 million viewers tuned in to watch women’s sports on TV in 2023. The record numbers shadowed the 2019 mark by almost a million.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup final, where Spain eked past England with a 1-0 scoreline at Stadium Australia, was 2023’s most-watched women’s sports event on TV. It raked in 38.4 million viewing hours.

The research read that viewers tuned in for at least one minute of women’s sport on linear TV. Additionally, the figures displayed the average viewing time shot up by 16% to 10 hours and seven minutes per person as compared to eight hours and 44 minutes in 2022.

“The industry needs to capitalise on these opportunities to drive further awareness and engagement, so we can continue to broaden the audience for women’s sports, and reach the fans where they are,” Sky Sports quoted the CEO of Women’s Sport Trust Tammy Parlour as saying.

“Women’s sport is attracting more younger, female fans which is great news for the industry as it shows we are starting to attract a distinctive fanbase,” Parlour added.

On pay-per-view TV, the final day of the Solheim Cup most-watched women’s sports event with 3.1 million viewing hours. The elusive trophy was retained by Europe after a 14-14 draw against Team USA in September.

According to the research, the Women’s World Cup got 25.7 million streams on digital platform BBC iPlayer. The numbers mean that there was a 75% increase from the 2019 edition.

The Women’s Sport Trust disclosed that TikTok played a pivotal role in increasing Women’s Super League video views by 268% over 2022’s figure to 150 million views.

The Trust added that football remained the most popular sport with 74% of viewing hours. Cricket, rugby union and golf followed with 15%, 5%, and 3% respectively.

About Author

SSZee Media

Provider of Quality Entertainment News and Information

See author's posts