Women’s sport draws record viewers in UK

The Women’s World Cup final, which England lost to Spain, played a huge part in the figures

The Lionesses’ run to the World Cup final contirbuted to the record viewing figures (Getty Images)

A record 46.7m viewers in Britain tuned in to watch women’s sport on TV in 2023, eclipsing 2019’s mark by almost a million, according to research published by the Women’s Sport Trust.

The Women’s World Cup football final, which England lost 1-0 to Spain at Stadium Australia, was 2023’s most-watched women’s sport event on TV with 38.4m viewing hours.

The figures, which reflected viewers tuning in for at least one minute of women’s sport on linear TV, showed the average viewing time increased by 16 per cent to 10 hours and seven minutes per person, compared with 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,” CEO of Women’s Sport Trust Tammy Parlour said.

“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.”

For pay TV, day three of the Solheim Cup, which was retained by Europe after a 14-14 draw against Team USA in September, was the most-watched women’s sports event with 3.1m viewing hours.

The research also showed that the Women’s World Cup generated 25.7m streams on digital platform BBC iPlayer, an increase of 75 per cent from the 2019 edition.

While domestic sport consumption on TV declined by 5 per cent, the Women’s Sport Trust said social media platform TikTok played a key role in increasing Women’s Super League video views by 268 per cent over 2022’s figure to 150m views.

It added that football remained the most-watched sport with 74 per cent of viewing hours, followed by cricket (15 per cent), rugby union (5 per cent) and golf (3 per cent).

Reuters