Sky Sports’ overall audience is 31% female but that leaps to 58% with tennis: ‘No sport comes close,’ says one executive
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longside the multibillion-pound battle for Premier League TV rights, tennis has emerged as another key offering in the broadcasters’ scrap for subscribers for one simple reason: unlike every other sporting audience in the UK, the majority of those watching are women.
Sky Sports has been showing live tennis for about 12 hours each day from the US Open for the last fortnight, the midpoint of a five‑year deal that began in 2023 and that signalled its return to a sport it had in effect abandoned six years previously. Preliminary talks with the United States Tennis Association over a new contract are expected to take place after the conclusion of the championships in New York, with Sky eager to extend.
Beyond the US Open, Sky signed a five-year deal for exclusive rights for all ATP and WTA Tour events last year, with the managing director, Jonathan Licht, revealing such investments are part of a deliberate attempt to attract more female viewers to a network that remains largely the televisual sanctuary of middle-aged men.
