Women, sport and business: Media deals

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the second programme of our series on women, sport and business, we’re looking at the media.

With women’s sport accounting for only around 5% of total sports coverage globally, we find out how some clubs and organisations are moving away from traditional media, and looking at digital and streaming to reach fans instead.

Reporter Sam Fenwick visits Burnley FC Women in the north of England. In 2021 they signed a ground breaking deal with TikTok to show every home game. And we hear from TikTok themselves – Rich Waterworth, General Manager for the UK and Europe explains what’s in it for them.

Sue Anstiss is the author of Game On: The unstoppable rise of women’s sport. She tells us fans of all sports are consuming content differently now, and if women’s sport gets it right, there could be a big opportunity in the digital market.

And Haley Rosen, founder and CEO of digital media company Just Women’s Sports explains her frustration at trying to set up a business in a growing marketplace which is lacking in investment and infrastructure.

Presenter: Sam Fenwick Producer: Helen Thomas (Image: Burnley FC Women in December 2021. Credit: George Wood/Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, I'm Sam Fenwick and this is Business Daily from the BBC World Service.
0:10.1	In this episode in our series on women, sport and business, we're looking at whether going digital is the future.
0:16.8	We don't need to follow the path of men's sport. There's lots of we can learn from men's sport and we can emulate, but we don't need to follow a path of men's sport. There's lots of what we can learn from men's sport, and we can emulate, but we don't need to follow a path. There's this opportunity to be more nimble in women's sport that we can do things differently. We hear from the footballers whose club have signed a deal with TikTok, and now their matches are live streamed on social media. I think it is good for our team, especially Burnley as a whole, because it just puts it out
0:40.2	there that the women are playing football and people are watching it.
0:43.3	There's more people watching it week by week, so it obviously grows the game as a whole
0:48.0	and the women's game, so it's good.
0:49.6	But to be truly successful, does women's sport need to follow the men's game and chase big money
0:56.1	TV deals? Ready, plate, three minutes work setting, off at an angle. It's Thursday night at
1:05.3	Burnley FC Women's Training Ground in the north of England. The team are in the third tier
1:10.5	of the Women's League, but they have a lot of England. The team are in the third tier of the women's
1:11.3	league, but they have a lot of ambition. In 2021, they became fully professional and incorporated
1:17.5	into the main club alongside the men's team. At the same time, they signed a ground-breaking
1:23.5	partnership with social media giant TikTok to live stream every home game.
1:29.4	The first football team in the UK, men's or women's, to do this.
1:33.9	Carvericket, Burley, number six, set a bath.
1:36.7	Watch our home games live right here on TikTok.
1:39.3	Follow us for trends, pitch, tricks and everything in between.
1:41.9	Same way.
1:43.4	It's a cool evening here on the Moors of East Lancashire
1:46.7	and I'm dressed in scarves, hats and gloves.
1:50.1	The players, though, aren't feeling the cold.
1:52.3	They are working on their speed and agility tonight,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.