To mark International Women's Day 2022, the Foxtel Group today released Game Changer, a new annual report detailing progress in producing, televising and building audiences for women's and underrepresented sports in Australia.
The 2020-21 Game Changer report details outcomes associated with the Australian Government's funding to help increase broadcast coverage of women's and under-represented sports. These sports have traditionally struggled to secure broadcast coverage in the mainstream media. Highlights include:
- Broadcasting over 4,700 hours of women's and underrepresented sport
- Increasing audience accessibility for sports supported by the funding with games and events from every competition available to stream for free, in front of the paywall on Kayo, where rights permit
- Showcasing and supporting 23 different sports throughout the life cycle of the grant, including AFL, Athletics, Basketball, Baseball, Beach Volleyball, Cricket, Cycling, Fencing, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Rugby League, Softball, Surf Life Saving and Surfing
- Ratings highlights in 2020-21 include:
- the 2020 Australia v India Women's Cricket World Cup Final with an average audience of 450,000 on Foxtel and Kayo, +175% compared to the 2018 Final
- Women's AFL with 2021 audiences +19% on 2019 and almost 130,000 watching Brisbane's Grand Final victory over Adelaide, + 65% on the 2019 Grand Final.
Foxtel Group Chief Executive Officer Patrick Delany said: "We are proud of what's been achieved for women's and underrepresented sports through this multi-year initiative between the Australian Government and the Foxtel Group.
"Since 2018, women's sport has made up 65% of the hours broadcast and streamed through the initiative. There is still a lot to do, but women's sport is now undergoing a transformation in popularity and participation, and the profile of Aussie sportswomen has never been higher.
“Market research released yesterday by Fox Sports highlighted that two-thirds of Australians are now watching women’s sport, and 69% of that group have increased their consumption of women’s sports since 2020.
"While we have reported annually to Government on the outcomes of the initiative, we believe it's important to share these results more widely. An important achievement in 2020-21 was being able to increase accessibility by making games from every competition supported by the Government's funding available to stream for free on Kayo where we have free rights.
"The 2020-21 year also presented many challenges resulting from COVID-19's impact on women's sport which we have outlined in this report. These sports will benefit from the two-year extension of program funding announced by the Government in July 2020," he said.