Welcome to Data Insights: More Than a Moment. A series unpacking key data from the latest Women’s Sport Trust Visibility Report – what it shows, and why it matters now for women’s sport.
Women’s sport continues to account for a relatively small share of prime‑time sports coverage in the UK, but the audiences it delivers tell a bigger story. In 2025, women’s sport coverage represented 8% of all prime‑time sports broadcasts, up on 6% in 2024.
Despite that limited share of exposure, women’s sport delivered 13% of total sport viewing hours, demonstrating a disproportionate audience response when it appeared in high‑attention slots. The BBC delivered the largest share of prime‑time women’s sport coverage across its flagship channels, supported by its major tournament rights, with ITV also contributing significant prime‑time audiences.
Major events continued to be an important factor in this performance. Tournaments such as the UEFA Women’s EURO benefited from favourable scheduling, with minimal time‑zone disruption allowing key matches to fall within UK prime‑time slots and maximise audience reach.
What does this really mean?
In other words, when women’s sport appeared in prime‑time broadcast slots, it generated a higher share of viewing than its share of airtime. Prime time represents the highest-audience television hours within a limited scheduling window for sport, where competition for attention is at its most intense.
Why this matters now
At a point when women’s sport is reaching record audiences overall, the way visibility is distributed matters as much as how much visibility exists. Prime‑time performance highlights not just audience growth, but how that growth is shaped by placement and context.
Where women’s sport continues to represent a relatively small share of high‑attention broadcast slots despite delivering a larger share of viewing within them, the gap between exposure and demand remains structural. The data shows that how visibility is allocated is closely linked to how audience engagement develops over time.
Read the full report – Download More Than A Moment for free to explore the data shaping women’s sport.
