With the AWSN, Has the Time Finally Come for Women’s Sports ?

Last week, during her appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, actress Whoopi Goldberg announced the launch of the All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN). The channel, dedicated to airing any sports played by women on an international scale, will offer coverage for various sports such as basketball, skateboarding, surfing, and soccer. With a mix of live and delayed broadcasts, AWSN aims to address inequality in sports media representation. It joins other broadcasting channels focused on women’s sport, such as former ESPN executive Carol Stiff’s Women’s Sports Network or the Europe-based W-Sport.

Whoopi Goldberg and the project

“If a woman is playing it, we’re showing it,” said Goldberg in a promotional video for the channel. Granting little importance to the sport, as long as it involves women, AWSN will become the first global women’s sports channel. According to its website, the latter will be available in 65 countries and feature some of the world’s largest sports teams such as the Union of European Football Association (UEFA), the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL). 

Partnering with CommonSpirit and Jungo TV, who co-founded the network, Goldberg confessed to Fallon that AWSN has been 16 years in the making. She further recalled that “Ever since [she] was a little kid, [she] always wanted to play sports. [Her] brother could play… He played everything. And [for her] they would say, ‘Oh, hi little girl!’ It always pissed [her] off. Athletics – when they’re done brilliantly – it doesn’t matter who’s doing it. We don’t really have that relationship with women’s sports.”

Explaining how she never got to play sports growing up because of her gender, she hopes that by putting light on female sports, AWSN will inspire younger girls to pursue their athletic passions and break barriers in traditionally male-dominated fields.

“The world is finally recognizing the incredible female athletes who have always been here but were not given the exposure they deserved,” Goldberg said. “Bringing these athletes, teams, and leagues to over 2 billion people is historical.” Indeed, with AWSN, George Chung, AWSN co-founder and JungoTV CEO aims to showcase women’s stories and acknowledge athletes’ achievements with greater visibility. The channel is a space for girls and women to see themselves and their sports represented, where aspiration and performance are celebrated.

Whoopi Goldberg, born Caryn Elaine Johnson, is an award-winning actress, comedian, author, and TV personality. Renowned for her versatility, she gained fame with the movie The Color Purple and won an Academy Award for her performance in Ghost. Goldberg is one of the few personalities to achieve the EGOT status, winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. She is now also a pioneer in the world of women’s sports with the launch of the All Women’s Sports Network.

Recent surge in interest for women’s sports

AWSN comes at a time when women’s sports are gaining more popularity than ever before. This year, for the first time, women’s sports will generate over 1 billion dollars in revenue, a 300% increase from 2021. Young rising athletes like tennis player Coco Gauff and college basketball star Caitlin Clark, are attracting new viewers to their sports. Coaches also attribute this surge to new investments in women’s professional leagues and greater sponsorship opportunities.  

In August 2023, the college volleyball match Nebraska Cornhuskers against Nebraska-Omaha welcomed the largest crowd to watch a women’s sports game ever. Drawing over 92 000 fans, the supporters at Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium broke the record of 91 648 previously held by a Champions League match in Spain.

In 2024, the Women National Basketball Association also had its most-watched season in 24 years, set their single-game attendance record and saw their highest total attendance in 22 Years.

Furthermore, for the first time in the history of the Olympics Games, Paris 2024 welcomed this summer an equal number of male and female athletes.

The average share of women’s sports media coverage has nearly tripled, with a rise to 15% in 2022, in contrast to around 5% in 2019. It is now expected to reach 20% by 2025. Across streaming platforms such as ESPN+, Peacock or Paramount+, women’s sports totalised 22 000 hours of coverage, with particular peaks during high-profile events like the Olympics, FIFA Women’s World Cup, and March Madness. Women’s basketball led the way, with 2 055 hours of coverage. The NCAA Division One Women’s Basketball Tournament set records across the six rounds, as the final game averaged around 18.7 million viewers and peaked at 24 million on ESPN and ABC, making it the first time for a women’s final to draw a larger audience than men’s. It became the most watched women’s basketball game of all time and the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s, college or pro) since 2019.

Women in sports still face many issues

While this increased coverage marks a step forward for the recognition of women’s sports, these events remain underrepresented across major media platforms. Indeed, this coverage is often not produced or marketed the same as men. Last year’s Women’s Basketball Championship game aired at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 7th, not allowing it a primetime slot for audience, despite the success of nearly 10 million viewers for the 2023 game. Additionally, when women do receive coverage, research demonstrates high rates of objectification of women athletes, with fewer camera angles and commentators’ regular reflections on their appearance, or family involvement.

Study also showed that 1.3 million girls who once loved sports are disengaging by the time they reach puberty. Indeed, beyond the lack of representation of their disciplines, women also face consequent gaps in salary in comparison to men. Caitlin Clark, the athlete with the Division I scoring record, set at 3 668 points, still gets paid significantly less than last year’s top NBA pick Victor Wembanyama, with his $55 million contract. In comparison, Clark’s salary – $338 056 over the next four years – caused shock to many in the sports world. President Joe Biden even went on the social media platform X to declare “Right now we’re seeing that even if you’re the best, women are not paid their fair share. It’s time that we give our daughters the same opportunities as our sons and ensure women are paid what they deserve.” 

So could that be reached with Goldberg’s All Women’s Sports Network ? AWSN will eventually be available in 65 countries and has already launched in Asia, in the Middle East, and, more recently, in the US. CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest U.S. health-care systems, also signed as the network’s premiere domestic brand partner. The channel already has agreements with France’s soccer Premiere Ligue ; the FIBA (International Basketball Federation); the International Judo Federation (IJF) and the Swedish soccer league OBOS Damallsvenskan, to only cite a few. Goldberg thus aims at having the “largest distributed female sports network in the world, digital or broadcast,” with a projected 2 000 hours of retransmission in the 2024-25 season. The programming schedule can be found here.

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