$1.45m to Boost Women’s Sport Media Coverage

Fifteen national sporting organisations will share in $1.45 million in new funding to boost the media coverage of women’s sport, Minister for Sport Mark Arbib and Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis announced today.

The Ministers announced the successful applicants for the Australian Government’s Women in Sport Media Grants, a new initiative to increase the exposure and reach of women’s sport in the Australian media.

Speaking at the World Netball Championships in Singapore, Senator Arbib commended sports for their vision and initiative in working to increase and enhance the coverage of women’s sport in Australia.

“Women’s sport deserves greater prominence in the Australian media. These grants will help sports develop quality content for broadcasters and attract greater coverage of a range of women’s sports,” Senator Arbib said.

“Research has shown that women’s sport receives less than nine per cent of sports news media coverage despite Australia’s world class women’s results and outstanding female athletes.

“Australia’s female athletes won 56 per cent of Australia’s medals at the Beijing Olympic Games and Australian women claimed 18 world championships and world titles across a range of sports in 2010.

“With the advent of digital television and an increase in demand for content, there is no better time to help women’s sports attract the media coverage that will open the door to long term revenues from sponsorship and broadcast rights.”

Netball Australia is received $260,000 to develop a comprehensive digital media strategy and to assist with broadcasting the ANZ Championships. The funding will also be used to produce other digital content to be used across a number of media platforms.

Netball Australia CEO Kate Palmer welcomed the government’s support for women’s sport.

“This is a positive move forward for women’s sport and will help improve the coverage of women’s sport and make it more accessible to everyone,” Ms Palmer said.

Minister Ellis said she was proud of the government’s significant support for women through programs such as the Women in Sport Media Grants.

“These new grants will ensure that more Australians get to see greater coverage of the inspiring women’s performances that have been missing from the media landscape for too long,” Ms Ellis said.

“Aspiring young female athletes will now be able to see their sporting role models compete in high level events on a more regular basis.

“For too long limited media attention has created a cycle where women’s sport has received less sponsorship and advertising dollars, which has in turn has devalued women’s sport.

“This funding sees the Government stepping in to directly assist with production costs, marketing and promotion of national and international level Australian women’s leagues, competitions, teams and athletes.”

The Australian Government further supports women in sport through the Sports Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women program and the Women in Sport Leadership Register that aims to improve the number of women on Boards of Australian sporting organisations and helps promote an inclusive culture for women in sport.

Visit www.ausport.gov.au/womeninsportmedia for more information.