Sports radio was founded in a different era than today. Major League Baseball was still America’s pastime. The NBA was difficult to find on over-the-air television. College football was still for amateurs, and running backs were considered the most important position in the NFL. Today, the landscape is much different, and sports radio must chase audiences everywhere to compete with content creators serving an on-demand audience.
Interest in sports has also changed. Baseball is no longer the most important or most-viewed sport in the country. The NFL rules the land and continues to expand its international audience. Meanwhile, the WNBA just had its best year of viewership on ESPN in the league’s 30-year history. Yet sports radio still has been slow to adapt to the surging interest in women’s sports. But why?
This season, ESPN recorded its most-viewed WNBA season in network history. Across 29 games, the network averaged 1.37 million viewers per game. That’s a 17% increase from the previous year. It’s also a higher average audience than the network’s NHL coverage. While the 1.37 million viewers per game didn’t eclipse the network’s averages for the NBA (1.9 million) and MLB (1.8 million), the gap is narrower than ever before.
The WNBA also secured the largest national media rights package in league history. The new 11-year media deal is worth $3.1 billion, an average annual value of roughly $281 million. That’s a massive leap from the previous deal’s annual average of $44 million.
Sixty-five percent of the league’s regular-season games aired on national platforms. That’s more than MLB, the NHL and the NBA. The league also plays during the summer, when it doesn’t have to compete with the NFL, NHL or NBA for attention.
Yet when you scan the landscape of sports radio stations across the country, where’s the attention? Should there be more? Or is this sports radio’s biggest missed opportunity?
Trust The Data
There’s an audience watching, and that audience continues to grow. There’s also a demographic searching for more content surrounding the sport. So, why shouldn’t sports radio chase those listeners?
Sports radio stations around the country continue to struggle with thinking outside the box. Yes, the NFL is king, and stations can build content around football throughout the year. But is that approach growing the audience? Are you expanding your reach by continuing to follow the same programming model you have for the past decade plus?
Typically, when you silo your audience and content, you also silo your growth potential. That’s why opportunities to venture outside the comfort zone should be the norm, not the outlier. There’s never been a better opportunity to do that than with women’s sports.
ESPN is seen as the worldwide leader for a reason. The network has consistently looked beyond traditional programming models to expand its audience. It moved away from Sunday Night Baseball and its 36-year history while introducing Women’s Sports Sundays. What happened?
Younger demographics. More female viewers for advertisers. And a healthy audience that came with it, along with a much lower cost of entry for WNBA and NWSL broadcast rights. The initiative has been successful enough that ESPN is expanding its slate deep into November, adding competitions ranging from college volleyball to women’s professional boxing.
ESPN recognized the opportunity, embraced the challenge, and the results are paying off. Why couldn’t sports radio talent around the country do the same?
Add To The Toolbox
Sports radio talent don’t need to abandon the sports that built its audience. The NFL, NBA, MLB and college sports will continue to be the foundation of the format. However, the sports viewing audience is telling the industry there is room for more.
Women’s sports are no longer a niche conversation. Ratings, media rights, attendance, social engagement and growing investment all provide evidence that interest exists and continues to grow. Sports radio should be paying attention to that signal.
The opportunity isn’t simply to talk about women’s sports because it’s the right thing to do. It’s to talk about it because there is an audience interested in hearing the conversation. That should be enough reason for sports radio to experiment, give its talent room to engage with the topic and see where the audience takes it.
Sports radio has spent decades telling listeners what’s worth talking about. In today’s fragmented media environment, perhaps it’s time to listen to what the audience is telling sports radio is worth talking about.
And right now, the audience is making one thing pretty clear: Women’s sports deserve a bigger seat at the sports radio table.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
