Media paying record sums to show women’s sports

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 21/05/2026

The interest in women’s sports is booming with media companies offering huge sums for the right to show attractive games. The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has signed the largest media rights deal in women’s sports history – an 11-year agreement worth approximately USD 2.2 billion paid by Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBC Universal. But despite the many rapid gains, major gaps remain. 

Women athletes continue to struggle with fewer professional opportunities, a massive pay gap, fewer sponsorships, less airtime, and unequal playing conditions, according to statistics published by UN Women.

In 2024, around 50% of the global population said they followed women’s sports, up from 45% in 2022. In the US alone, audiences consumed 46 billion minutes of women’s sports coverage in 2025.

Women’s football is projected to have over 800 million fans globally by 2030 and become one of the world’s top five sports.

A negative aspect is that women and girls experience violence across sport settings and environments and in various roles, including as athletes, coaches, reporters, therapists, referees, and fans, the report says.

“Available research, anecdotal evidence and accounts of real-life experiences highlight that women and girls from all cultures face violence in sport settings, ranging from harassment to sexual assault”. UN Women says.

“Safeguards designed to shield female athletes from sexual and psychological abuse are underfunded and frequently ineffective or are ignored altogether. While other well-resourced sport integrity measures tend to focus on curbing doping and match-fixing.”

“Nearly 21% of professional women athletes have experienced sexual abuse as a child in sport – almost double the rate of male athletes at 11%.”  

“Sports organizations have too often tried to cover up harassment and abuse to protect their reputations, as was the case with US Gymnastics. Due to the courage of survivors, they succeeded in securing a guilty verdict with multiple life sentences after decades of abuse by the team doctor.”   

The report notes that a World Athletics study found that  85% of online abuse in the lead-up to and during the Tokyo Olympics was directed at women; 63% of identified abuse  was directed at just two athletes – both black and female. 

A BBC survey of elite women athletes shows that over 30% of them had experienced serious abuse online. 

“Women’s leadership in sports is critical to driving investment and improved sports policy related to gender equality objectives. There has been notable progress in the past decade, but gaps remain.”

“In the International Olympic Committee, 41% of IOC Members are female – 100% more than in 2013 – with more diversity in terms of age and regional representation.”

From statistics:

• Approximately  35 female commentators were hired by the Olympic Broadcasting Services for Paris 2024, raising the percentage of female commentators to nearly 40% – a nearly 80% increase compared to Tokyo 2020 and over 200% from Rio 2016. 
• Social media conversation around women’s sports increased to 18.5% in 2022, marking a 2.53% average annual increase in share. 
• Women athletes wield significantly more influence compared to other types of influencers. 88%regard pro women athletes as impactful role models for young women. 
• Audiences of female sports are booming. Seven out of 10 people now watch women’s sports. Almost 73% say they watch women’s sports at least a few times a year – not too far behind the percentage who watch men’s sports with the same frequency (81%).  
• More than 82,000 fans attended the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham, UK, while the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup India 2025 final drew 185 million viewers – matching the audience of the men’s T20 Cricket World Cup final in 2024. 
• Previously, the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 was the most viewed women’s sports event in history with a  global audience of nearly 2 billion viewers.