Women's sport: a panorama of audiovisual consumption practices

Arcom ensures the fair representation of diversity of French society in audiovisuel programs. As such, it monitors, evaluates and promotes media exposure of women's sports, through communication operations such as Sport Féminin Toujours, whose 5th edition was held from January 30 to February 5, 2023, as well as dedicated studies.

With this in mind, and in addition to its analysis of the supply of women's sports competitions on television between 2018 and 2021, the Authority wanted to draw up an overview of audiovisual consumption practices for women's sports programs, aimed at understanding demand for this type of content in France.

More specifically, the study assesses French interest in women's sport, the nature of women's competitions and disciplines followed, and public perceptions of women's sport being shown on TV.

Key findings include

• Women's sport is gradually taking root in the audiovisual practices of the French: 62% of those aged 15 and over consume women's sports-related contdnt (whether broadcasts or peripheral content) in the media.
• As with sport in general, women are less likely than men to consume women's sports-related content: 56% of women surveyed say they watch or listen to women's sports-related content at least once in a while, compared with 69% of men.
• Soccer tops the list of disciplines most closely followed by women's sports consumers (53% of respondents concerned), ahead of tennis (47%) and winter sports (38%).
• It is primarily the major international competitions, whether mixed or strictly women's, that offer the opportunity to follow women's sport, which may explain why women's sports programs are most often watched on an occasional basis.

Nonetheless, the French surveyed show a strong interest in a greater supply in the audiovisual media: 64% say they would be willing to viewed more women's sport if the supply on television were greater.