Women’s sport is enjoying unprecedented attention, with record audiences, landmark global events and breakthrough moments. Increased visibility in women’s sport should be celebrated. But at Women’s Sport Trust, we know that high-profile moments do not automatically equal structural progress. In 2025, women’s sport reached a record 48 million viewers and passed 10,000 broadcast coverage hours for the first time. Yet it still accounted for just 9% of total sports coverage on key channels, and only 8% in prime-time slots.
Too often, visibility is understood only in terms of volume: the number of minutes, headlines or social media views in a given moment. These measures are essential, and tracking them is critical. However, volume metrics in isolation don’t tell the whole story. True visibility is also about share, prominence and placement. The kind of coverage that allows audiences to build habits and understanding.
Moments can spark interest, but without sustained exposure before and after those peaks, progress remains fragile. This matters because visibility underpins growth: audiences need repeated exposure, and commercial partners need predictability to invest at scale. When visibility fluctuates, women’s sport can struggle to convert attention into lasting cultural and commercial impact.
Our previous research, Turning Moments into Habits (2023), showed that while major events ignite fandom, it is consistent, exciting domestic exposure that converts attention into habit. Without that bridge, even record-breaking tournaments struggle to deliver sustained growth.
Why Women’s Sport Trust focuses on Visibility
At Women’s Sport Trust, visibility is one of our core pillars. In 2021, our Closing the Visibility Gap report explored the commercial value of visibility, the role of major events in driving engagement, and the importance of intentional, data-led storytelling. We focus on visibility because it doesn’t just reflect progress, it enables it. Tracking visibility over time allows us to see patterns, not just peaks. It helps identify where growth is genuine, where it is uneven, and where it remains dependent on exceptional circumstances rather than embedded systems.
Crucially, because we are independent and not driven by commercial mandates, we are able to assess progress across the whole ecosystem, not just within individual properties or campaigns. Perception can be misleading, particularly in years that deliver high-profile success. Without evidence, it becomes easy to overstate progress and overlook where attention still falls away.
Optimism is part of women’s sport. Our role is to ensure it is matched by evidence. By providing long-term, system-wide insight into visibility, we aim to support better, smarter decision-making across media, brands, rights holders and policymakers. Not by celebrating visibility for its own sake, but by understanding how it drives commercialisation, sustainability and meaningful cultural change.
More Than A Moment: Evidence-led analysis of women’s sport in 2025
After sharing our latest Visibility Report, this distinction matters more than ever. Visibility that fluctuates creates uncertainty. Visibility that is structured creates long-term value. As the sector enters a new phase of commercial maturity, the structures that support independent insight must evolve too. If you’re making investment decisions in women’s sport in 2026, ask yourself:
- Are you funding moments, or systems?
- Are you measuring spikes, or stability?
- Are you building visibility, or borrowing it?
Our latest Visibility Report explores this in detail – download now.