Good Game with Sarah Spain is your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s news, every day. … [+]
Podcasting is the latest bright spot in the ongoing fight to increase media coverage of women’s sports: In a first for women’s sports, longtime sports radio personality Sarah Spain will host a daily women’s sports podcast on a major radio network. Great match with Sara SpainFans will now have one-stop access to interviews and talk show analysis of their favorite female athletes and teams, regardless of their favorite sport.
iHeartMedia and Deep Blue Sports & Entertainment are co-producing the podcast as part of the newly formed Women’s Sports Audio Network and hope to provide female sports fans with the community and coverage they crave through their partnership with Spain.
The Spanish show’s vision is to be a one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sport, every day. As well as breaking news and interviews, it will feature regular appearances from the world of women’s sport – athletes, coaches, reporters, celebrities and fans – to discuss everything “from the play on the court to the drama off it”.
“We want to be the place to bring you the bets, the stars, the stories, the stats and more that will make you want to watch more,” Spain said. “Our goal with the show is to create a community for people who love women’s sports (or want to love women’s sports) with interviews, conversations, debates and a community that is both informative and entertaining.”
A different kind of sports show
In addition to offering female sports fans “bet money, stars, stories and statistics,” Spain also wants to create a space where female sports fans feel welcomed and invited into the sports community, as the male sports world has historically not been known as the most inclusive space.
“I just want everyone to feel like they’re walking into a community for 30 minutes every day. Don’t just listen, participate. Listen, laugh, learn, feel welcome and understood,” Spain added. “I’ve been in the sports industry for almost 20 years and when I started I was constantly battling stereotypes about women who love sports. I had to be ‘one of the guys’ to fit in. I wasn’t pretending, I was just choosing what parts of myself to bring to the conversation, and those were the parts of me that fit the sports fan stereotype.”
Regular women’s sports programming is something Spain has long advocated for, and it recently emerged that the idea had been rejected by other networks, despite efforts to attract sponsors to financially back the programming.
Great match with Sara Spain is just one of many shows launching as part of the Women’s Sports Audio Network in the coming weeks. In addition to Spain, the Women’s Sports Audio Network will feature shows from leaders in women’s sports, including hockey stars Madison Packer and Anya Packer, tennis Grand Slam winner Renae Stubbs, WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes, golf media personality Tisha Allin and WNBA insider Christina Williams. All shows will have corresponding social content in addition to news and original programming distributed across iHeart’s broadcast, digital and podcast platforms.
Business Opportunities for Women in Sports Media
The launch of the audio network comes at a time when fanbase and business growth in women’s sports is reaching new heights. According to Deloitte, professional women’s sports is expected to be a billion-dollar industry by 2024. However, despite significant growth in recent years, women’s sports still receives only a small fraction of sports media coverage compared to men’s sports. The Women’s Sports Audio Network aims to create more specialized women’s sports media and ultimately increase investment in the sector.
“It’s not just a hot time for women’s sports, it’s a hot time. Yet women’s sports content continues to be hard to find and hard to buy,” Laura Correnti, founder and CEO of Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment, said in a press release about the launch of the new women’s sports audio programming. “The Women’s Sports Audio Network aims to change that.”
“The real issue has been availability,” says Sarah Spain. “If you look at the latest statistics on viewership and media coverage, we’ve always said that only 4% of media coverage is devoted to women’s sport. That figure is now at 15% and has improved, but to get that number up you need availability.”
Capital One, elf Cosmetics and elf SKIN have been announced as founding partners of the Women’s Sports Audio Network’s women-only sports programming.
