A few weeks ago, on a corner of the internet usually serving aggressive 30-second dance challenges, BBC Sport quietly livestreamed a WSL fixture.
Charlton’s 6-0 defeat to Chelsea at The Valley was streamed live on the BBC Women’s Football TikTok channel. There was no marketing or noise around it, but it showed how traditional broadcasters are trying to find ways of reaching the younger audiences everyone in television is so desperate for.
New audiences are coming into the orbit of women’s football, but the difference between who’s following on socials and who’s watching on TV is stark.
“Women’s football fans are different” is a phrase I’ve heard a thousand times over the last two years, a statement that isn’t wholly untrue, but which paints a broadly inaccurate picture of women’s football fandom. Yes, across the digital world, women’s football fans are different from traditional sports audiences. But when it comes to TV, the audience mirrors that of sports television more broadly: male and older.
The Cutback can exclusively reveal that when it comes to live broadcast audiences, the WSL is a very traditional sports property. Sky Sports’ broadcast audience for the WSL last season was 69% men and 31% women, and 59% were aged 55 or over.
