Digital growth outpaces TV figures, but deeper investment is needed
Linear broadcast audiences for women’s sport in the UK declined in early 2025, with three-minute reach falling 13% year-on-year according to the Women’s Sport Trust.
But while coverage hours were down and key competitions like the BWSL and W6N saw falling viewership, a different story emerged online. Across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, engagement with women’s sport surged, fuelled by increased content output, athlete-led storytelling and more consistent publishing from leading teams and leagues.
Still, the latest WST report warns that digital visibility alone is not enough. Sustained growth, it argues, now depends on how well the wider ecosystem is supported.
More than reach: visibility is now multi-platform
While the broadcast reach of women’s sport declined during the first five months of 2025 – from 22.6 million to 19.6 million – this shift does not signal a drop in interest. Instead, it reflects changing audience behaviour and the limitations of traditional metrics in capturing engagement.
The same period saw a 15% fall in overall broadcast coverage hours, driven largely by reductions in pay-TV coverage across sports such as netball, golf and cycling. Yet even where TV viewing dipped, digital engagement rose.
On TikTok, video uploads from the eight most viewed women’s leagues and properties increased 95% year-on-year, resulting in a 105% rise in views. On YouTube, uploads rose 115%, views by 84%.
This surge is not confined to niche sports or novelty spikes. Mainstream properties are leading the growth: the WNBA recorded 131 million TikTok views, while the WTA topped YouTube for women’s sport with 63 million views — a 75% increase on the previous year. In the UK, the Barclays Women’s Super League (BWSL) saw 56 million TikTok views and 20 million YouTube views in the same period, making it the country’s most visible women’s domestic league online.
Tammy Parlour, CEO of the Women’s Sport Trust, noted during the launch of the report that not every trend was upward, but taken as a whole, “you can see a sector in a clear growth phase.” The challenge, she said, is recognising that “progress isn’t linear” and that visibility must now be assessed “holistically, across all platforms and touchpoints.”
Athletes as amplifiers of visibility and engagement
One of the most consistent themes across the Women’s Sport Trust report is the growing role of athletes as key drivers of engagement and not just participants in it. While match broadcasts continue to form part of the visibility equation, much of the most impactful content in 2025 has been athlete-led, informal and off the pitch.
During the 2025 Women’s Six Nations (W6N), players from the Red Roses posted more content on TikTok than any other England team – male or female – in rugby, football or cricket. Their efforts paid off. Collectively, Red Roses players generated 6.7 million views between January and April, a 256% year-on-year increase, and 75% more than their male rugby counterparts during the same period.
Much of this activity was led by front-row player Sarah Bern, whose posts ranged from training clips to behind-the-scenes moments. Her TikTok content peaked during the Six Nations, driven by videos showing her interacting with fans and pundits after games. One such clip, shared by the BBC on X, reached 3.7 million views. Speaking during the launch event, WST’s Emma Gibson said Bern’s online momentum had been influenced by Ilona Maher, a social media-savvy U.S. international and club teammate at Bristol Bears.
This kind of player-driven visibility isn’t an isolated case. Maher’s mid-season arrival in the Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) competition led to a 281% increase in broadcast audiences when she was in the matchday squad. Instagram engagement for Bristol Bears Women rose ninefold over the season to 2.5 million.
Leagues learning to lead digitally
Beyond individual athletes, digital visibility in women’s sport is being shaped by how leagues themselves adapt to new consumption habits. In this, the Barclays Women’s Super League (BWSL) and Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) stand out for their rapid growth in digital performance — in some cases outpacing their male counterparts.
The BWSL’s official YouTube channel launched in July 2024 and has already become the second most viewed women’s sports competition globally, with 39.6 million views. On TikTok, the league recorded the highest average views per video (417,000) and the highest engagement per post of any global women’s sports property over the past 12 months.
Clubs have followed suit. Combined, BWSL clubs generated 556 million TikTok views and 154 million Instagram engagements over the 2024/25 season, outperforming all but the men’s Premier League. On Instagram, BWSL teams surpassed the 24 clubs of the men’s EFL Championship.
PWR, meanwhile, grew its live TV audiences on TNT Sports by 86% season-on-season. Though still small in absolute terms (21.9k average), the growth rate suggests a strong upward trend. Social media performance supports that picture: PWR YouTube views rose 24%, TikTok video views 91%, and Instagram engagement increased by 118%.
Yet this growth is uneven. According to the WST report, the vast majority of leading women’s leagues still post significantly less content than their male equivalents, and receive fewer resources to do so. Only the WTA posted more than its male counterpart (ATP) across TikTok during the report period.
Influencers, creators and broadcasters shape the ecosystem
One of the report’s central arguments is that visibility doesn’t exist in isolation. It is the product of an ecosystem one that includes players, broadcasters, digital publishers, influencers and increasingly, independent creators.
Broadcast entities have started to shift their approach. BBC Sport and Sky Sports both now operate dedicated women’s football TikTok channels, which focus heavily on behind-the-scenes and personality-driven content. The BBC’s “Names Will Be Made” campaign has brought female athletes into primetime and lifestyle programming, including Countryfile and CBeebies Bedtime Stories.
Independent creators have also emerged as significant contributors to visibility. TikTok influencers like Ally Flan and Stella Mills reported engagement rates exceeding 9%, higher than most league or athlete accounts. These creators regularly draw millions of views with personality-led, culturally relevant content that complements official league output but often reaches different audiences.
The crossover effect is becoming more pronounced. Mary Earps, England goalkeeper and TikTok’s fourth most-viewed UK-based female athlete in early 2025, used her social reach to promote both women’s rugby and netball. Videos of her attending a Netball Super League match outperformed 90% of the league’s official content, according to WST data.
Visibility potential remains untapped without parity in publishing
Despite the rise in digital engagement, the report is clear that opportunities are still being missed, particularly when it comes to content parity between men’s and women’s teams.
An analysis of TikTok content across clubs with both BWSL and EPL teams found significant discrepancies in publishing volume. Chelsea Women were the only side to come close to parity, with 45% of their combined club TikTok content coming from the women’s team. Several clubs’ women’s sides contributed less than 15%.
According to WST modelling, if BWSL clubs posted at the same rate as their male counterparts, they could generate over 600 million additional TikTok views per year, more than doubling current output.
“There’s strong casual fandom,” said Tammy Parlour during the report launch. “The opportunity now is to translate that into regular domestic viewing habits.”
That opportunity depends not only on publishing frequency, but also on content quality. Successful examples, such as Unrivaled Basketball in the US, demonstrate that athlete-led, culturally relevant content can achieve both high engagement and commercial value, but it requires dedicated strategy and resourcing.
Consistent investment remains the key to long-term value
While digital metrics suggest positive momentum, the report does not shy away from warning of structural vulnerabilities. Falling linear audiences for flagship properties like the BWSL and W6N, coupled with fewer high-profile broadcast slots, indicate that mainstream visibility is still fragile and heavily influenced by scheduling decisions and competition from men’s sport.
“The decline in overall broadcast viewership is a reminder of the fierce competition for audience attention,” said Parlour. “We must ensure that investment in production and distribution keeps pace with fan demand and the quality of the sport on offer.”
With the UEFA Women’s EURO and Women’s Rugby World Cup on the horizon, short-term spikes in visibility are likely. The question is whether the sector can convert these moments into sustained growth.
You can watch the full release of the WST report below.
